Silencing Our Students

This past week, I got sent to the advisor chair (my school's equivalent of the Principal's office) for the first time. Why? Well, because I was "planning to spit sunflower seeds out the window" and "being argumentative". I didn't have any sunflower seeds. I only spoke up when I was trying to explain that we are normally allowed to have our phones out in class (it's a very independent class) after a peer of mine was sent out in class.

What's the significance of this story? Well, this interaction and the events that followed opened my eyes to how silent a student's voice really is.

After being sent to the advisor chair, I asked the substitute if she could come to the advisor chairs office with me because I strongly disagreed with the reasoning behind why I was sent there. The sub refused and told me to get out. After this I went to the advisor chair's office, and explained the what had happened. Having heard my story, the advisor chair essentially told me that "I usually give kids a couple of morning detentions in a situation where they were sent out of class, but since this is your first time being sent here, I'll let you off with a warning." So in other words, he told me that I was in the wrong, and the only reason why I wasn't being punished was because it was my first time getting in trouble.

What I found to be more fascinating was that he told me he essentially had a standard punishment for all kids who are sent out of class. So regardless of what I say, I just look like every other kid trying to explain how they didn't do anything wrong, and as a consequence, I will be given the exact same punishment. This situation might have been avoided if the substitute would have talked to the advisor chair with me, but she simply refused, avoiding all accountability (that I thought existed) in the process.

Clearly, regardless of how innocent or guilty you are, you have almost no way to prove your innocence because the teacher doesn't have to talk to the advisor chair with you, and at the end of the day you just become another kid who is saying that he did nothing wrong. So regardless of what you say, you are simply giving the "usual" punishment.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any articles on students getting in trouble unjustly. This is probably because the only people this affects are students and teachers, and evidently students opinions aren't valued so the only people that really get heard when kids get in trouble are teachers. The reason why I find this story so important is because it entirely goes against everything we are taught in schools; expressing our opinions, advocating for ourselves, and standing up for what we believe in.