The Science School Student Discipline Practices

Verbal Warning
There are cases of student discipline where a simple verbal warning could be issued to rectify the problem. This is for minor violations of school policy particularly if it is a student who never or rarely gets into trouble. This warning would include what our expectations are concerning that behaviour and the next step of action should they violate the same policy a second time.

Parent Conference
A parent conference will be used to include the parent in the process of disciplinary action. This is to ensure that both the student and parents know that poor choices will not be tolerated. The Head of school will present all evidence to the parents with the student present so that facts are not distorted. A parent conference will probably lead to further consequences for the student who has violated a policy.

Detention
Based on the offence, possible detention times include before school detention, recess detention, lunch detention, PE detention, and after school detention. Tasks could include but are not limited to writing sentences, picking up trash, working on homework, reading a book, washing of dishes, sweeping the floor, mopping the floor or simply sitting quietly for the required time.
Saturday School
Saturday school will be used as a slightly harsher form of detention. Saturday school is used as both a disciplinary consequence and academic assistance for struggling students. In this context, it is a disciplinary consequence and as such will require an administrator and the child’s teacher to be there to run it. Students do particular work like picking up trash, cleaning up storage space, etc. The amount of time spent at Saturday school is up to the school but it will between four hours from 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m or six hours from 8:00 am to be 2:00 pm and the logistics of both the administrator and the teacher to monitor Saturday school will be on the parent.

In-School Suspension
In-School Suspension (ISS) is sometimes referred to as In-School Placement (ISP). This consequence is a temporarily removal of student from the general population who has become a disruption. ISP keeps a student in isolation on school premises during the school day allowing the student to complete all school work, but separated from all other students while monitored by school officials. The school has a certified teacher who monitors all students serving ISP helping them with any school work related issues, keeping them on their required schedule (including bathroom breaks), and enforcing the rules associated with being in ISP. ISP is not a place that students enjoy being in. It ranges from a short period of time (1-2 days) to a long period of time.

Out-of-School Suspension
Out-of-School suspension is a disciplinary consequence for more serious offenses. Students who are given out-of-school suspension as a disciplinary consequence either serve a short-term suspension (less than 10 days) or a long-term suspension (more than 10 days). A student who receives a long-term suspension must be placed on a plan of study to meet their academic needs if they are a special education student on an Individual Education Plan. The School will allow suspended student assignments to work on so that they do not fall too far behind. A long-term suspension would be used as a last resort in a worse case. Students who are serving a suspension must remain at home during school hours, or they could face truancy charges.

Expulsion
Expulsion is used for extreme violations of school policy including the possession of weapons, assault on a school employee, drug possession and/or use, etc. The school will have a hearing before the school board to determine whether the expulsion is the appropriate consequence. Expulsion will last for a full calendar year, but the members of the board can make changes to the length of the expulsion on a case by case basis.