Saturday Sessions at Portsmouth High School

Portsmouth High School is considering Saturday sessions for kids who break the rules which would cost about $3,000 per year for staffing. The idea is being debated and it’s a pretty evenly sided issue. Faculty and some residents are for the idea; however, students and parents are against it.

The reason for proposing several Saturday sessions a year is to minimize in-house suspensions which are given automatically if a student is caught smoking in or around the High School.

“There are other problems, but smoking is by far the biggest one,” said Tim Steele, a School Board member.

An in-house suspension is when a student is required to spend an entire school day with a faculty member in an empty classroom. Class work is not allowed to be made up. In 1995, the in-house suspension rate was at a high of 154 students. The new Saturday sessions function so that the student won’t miss any class time.
Steele proposed the new rule. Several weekends during the year, students who have disciplinary problems would be required to attend school on a Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon.

Peggy Bacon, a parent, disagreed with the idea. “I work six days a week—including Saturday morning—and it’s bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday,” said Bacon. “I just don’t think it’s going to make any difference, and the parents are going to pay for it—in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturdays.”
Steele counter-argued Bacon’s complaint. “I know this isn’t good news for parents, but I hope the threat of Saturday classes will make the students think twice before breaking the school rules,” he said.

Resident Bob Farley, of 64 Elm St., agreed with Steele. “Parents aren’t teaching their kids any discipline, so the kids have no respect for rules,” Farley said. “Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons they’ll start wising up.”

Lisa Gallagher, a senior, spoke against the issue. She’s never served a detention before, and plans to keep it that way, but she still does not like the idea of Saturday sessions.

“I think it’s just being done to make life easier for the faculty, so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week,” said Gallagher. “Anyway, what if someone skips the session? What are they going to do, make them stay all weekend?”

Steele replied that the student would not be allowed back at school without having served the detention.

After a heated half an hour of debate, the issue will remain unresolved until next week, March 7, after more research is done on in-school detentions this year.