what is it like to be in detention?
Posted by katris_priordeen@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 171 comments
what do you do in detention class? is it really like in the movies? where you have fun even though youre being "punished" cause your friends are there and you have the chance to see the love of your life or some shit like that? we never had detention class where i came from but we're given like a school community service
Artistic_Alps_4794@reddit
Detention can vary depending on the school. In my public school during the 1990s, you sat in a classroom and just waited until you were told to leave. Some kids might do homework or read something, but they didn't have to.
piper_squeak@reddit
This was us too. We also had Saturday detention but they were just longer detention like this.
No Breakfast Club-esque shenanigans, unfortunately.
Agitated_Honeydew@reddit
Yeah, the main punishment from Saturday detention was just no sleeping in on Saturday, and it mildly annoyed your parents taking you there. Other than that, you just sat there and did your homework.
Which wasn't that bad, since it meant that all your weekend homework was done by Saturday at noon, so we didn't have to worry about homework the rest of the weekend.
tangouniform2020@reddit
Never did Sat but heard it was hell. After school detention was an hour. Sat detention was 3 hours with a ten minute break half way through. But no fun, no talking. But it was in the library.
Agitated_Honeydew@reddit
It was boring AF, but I wouldn't call it hell. It's not something I'd recommend for a fun time, but I got my homework done, then just read a book.
Not even in the top 100 of my personal worst experiences.
tangouniform2020@reddit
Ok. Boring as hell. Not a torturous experience but not the way I’d want to spend a Sat morning.
TheBimpo@reddit
Sat in a room and read something until the time was up.
Which one did you watch?
The Breakfast Club? No, we didn't form lifelong bonds in detention. We sat there quietly because talking and goofing off meant more detention.
That seems more constructive.
WFOMO@reddit
Anybody except a complete idiot would do their homework so they'd have the evening free.
time2wipe@reddit
I had detention like once or twice in HS, IIRC we weren't allowed to do homework
TheyMakeMeWearPants@reddit
I was terrible about avoiding distractions when I got home and often wouldn't get my homework done unless I had detention. I was also terrible about arriving to school on time, and the punishment for failure to arrive on time was detention. The feedback loop here actually tended to help my grades.
Traditional-Joke-179@reddit
in my school, they forced you to sit there and do nothing. no reading, no schoolwork. sit in total silence and nonactivity.
WatermelonMachete43@reddit
Our school did this too.
Dry-Specialist-3557@reddit
Sounds like your school was run by idiots. Our schools encouraged learning during detention. Sometimes they would even show an educational movie!
shiny__things@reddit
We weren't allowed to read or do homework. Just had to sit there.
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Top-Ad-5795@reddit
Can confirm.
The only interesting thing that ever happened to me during detention was that I was there one week with the biggest geek in the school. We'd be in detention an hour after school and were allowed one 10 minute break during the session.
I came back from a break one day to find a note on my desk from a secret admirer. I read and re-read it, all the while wondering which lucky lady could have had a crush on yours truly. At some point, I noticed that something on the note had been scratched out next to my name, almost as though they had misspelled my name. I held it up to the light and sure enough, the school geek's name had been crossed out and my name written in next to it.
The whole note was a goof. And the school had a new chief geek.
ConflictWaste411@reddit
I think the point of the breakfast club is that they all went their separate ways and while permanently changed the bonds were immediately destroyed and they all returned to their normal lives.
dragginbuttcheeks@reddit
This is the right answer
VioletJackalope@reddit
Sit in a room and work on homework or some kind of “apology assignment” like writing a letter to the teacher you got in trouble with or the student you had an altercation with that landed you in there in the first place. Depending on the teacher running it, sometimes they use the detention kids for small labor tasks like moving things from one storage room location to the other or reorganizing things in the classroom.
vingtsun_guy@reddit
It's been a long time since I've been in school. All I remember is boredom.
Clementinecutie13@reddit
I never had true detention, I've had lunch detention though. Had to skip lunch with my friends and sit in a classroom with a teacher doing the homework I didn't turn in lol. It wasn't THAT bad.
NaNaNaNaNatman@reddit
You sit and do schoolwork while an adult watches over you to make sure you sit down and shut up. It can be fun if they have to leave the room for some reason.
yikester20@reddit
In Catholic school, it was a punishment. For example, you had to write a copy of the dictionary or bible for an hour. If the teacher wanted to be a dick, then he would add further “rules” like every word needs to be written in a different color ink, or you needed to write certain words backwards. If you didn’t copy enough of the book you were supposed to, then you had to come back for another detention to do it over again.
SirTheRealist@reddit
There definitely wasn’t any fun being had when I had detention. We just had to sit there quietly doing nothing or do some homework or reading.
nobodyhere9860@reddit
in my school detention was during lunch, since they would've had to provide a bus if they made students stay after/before school. It was administered by the teachers, so when you got detention you had to come into their classroom and eat your lunch in silence. Usually they had a class so you would just sit in the back while everyone stared at you.
ComedianXMI@reddit
We had to sit quietly in a room, at our desks, and do our whole day's work. It legitimately was awesome. I'd get all my work done (including homework) by 11am. I'd spend the rest of the day reading. Depending on the teacher you could talk or even sleep if they didn't care.
If you were my little hoodlum ass in 10th grade, my gym teacher had an errand to run during his period and put me in charge while he did it. Used to get detention for being late to class a lot. Not by much, just after the bell sounded by 15-30 seconds. I'd get after-school detention (refused to go) and had to do a full school day instead.
Not a punishment to me.
EcstasyCalculus@reddit
Wow, one man's detention really is another man's treasure.
ComedianXMI@reddit
● Didn't have to listen to teachers ramble. ● Got all my work done (even big-time projects) really quickly. ● Didn't have to talk to anybody. ● Got to read novels, draw or sometimes nap when done.
It was an introvert's dream, man.
Dry-Specialist-3557@reddit
Looking back 22 years ago, we had teachers who even tried lesson plans, had some who played movies to make babysitting some high-schoolers easier, some who wanted to tutor homework, some who if you did some really good work would dismiss you early from detention, etc. had one teacher buy us all pizza and Coke,
It really was an introvert’s dream. At worse, you would get lunch then report there to eat and do homework or read quietly. You could read anything like magazines, novels, newspapers, etc. it wasn’t bad at all.
The punishment was that you were not free to roam the campus with your friends and be loud and boisterous
EcstasyCalculus@reddit
See, my school would absolutely not tolerate napping, and I'm not sure they'd consider drawing to be a constructive detention-appropriate activity. And getting all your work done really quickly is kind of a double-edged sword because, what do you do for the rest of detention? I suppose you could read but, as a dyslexic, I'd rather voluntarily do calculus than read.
ComedianXMI@reddit
Hello fellow lexdystic! I legit used to read a lot to "get practice." Like working out my messed-up brain. But I didn't have it terribly bad, so maybe that's why.
And I was an art-nerd. So if a teacher asked I'd say it was for art practice and they'd let it go. And assuming one teacher made a stink, he was only there for 45 minutes. Big whoop.
EcstasyCalculus@reddit
Sit in a room, at a desk, closely monitored by a school staff member. Length of time can vary depending on whether it's lunch detention (30 min), after school detention (2-3 hr), Saturday morning detention (3-4 hr), or in-school detention/suspension (6-8 hrs, length of the school day).
No talking to anyone except the staff member on duty and only with permission. No electronics or other leisure items (depending on the school, you might not even be allowed to use your school-issued laptop to complete work, because the adult on duty can't always see if you're playing games on it). You are going to be bored as shit. Better find a way to occupy your time within those parameters, which comes down to either doing schoolwork or reading. Your only reprieve is lunch, in which you are escorted to the cafeteria by a staff member and back to the detention room, no opportunity to socialize. Same with bathroom breaks, you're going to have an adult holding your hand (not literally).
Bottom line, if you're smart, you'll do what it takes to stay out of detention.
Dry-Specialist-3557@reddit
Our school would actually play movies … for in-school suspension the movies were for entertainment not for education. It was literally just a teacher who was being a paid babysitter. There was even one teacher who would buy pizza and Coke … I think he wanted to be everybody’s friend or thought maybe it would help him get through to some truly troubled kids… not really sure. All I know is my worse experience in detention was just quietly reading or doing homework …. It was never much of a deterrent
Over_Wash6827@reddit
For us, it was just a monitored study hall. You did your homework, and a teacher ensured there wasn't any goofing off. Not fun, but also not terrible.
Dry-Specialist-3557@reddit
Same. We would eat, read, and even play games like Tetris on our graphing calculators… probably looked a lot like math homework. Did your teachers play movies during detention too sometimes? I think for us, it was just a monitored study hall where the teacher just wanted a break, so playing a movie was the easy button.
Dry-Specialist-3557@reddit
Detention would vary depending upon which teacher was hosting it, but it really wasn’t much of a punishment or a deterrent. Basically it was simply a quiet time to read, time to catch up on homework, time to play games on your calculator (I was a 1990,s early 2000’s public school kid), and time to eat. We were generally even allowed to talk as long as we were quiet, and some teachers would actually play a movie to pass the time more so for in -school-suspension. About the only thing that was a punishment is that you had to report there, when you would probably rather be hanging out with other friends and goofing off in a much more boisterous way.
detunedradiohead@reddit
It's like regular class but you meet "friends in low places" and someone like a coach is your warden.
Zaidswith@reddit
We had morning detention if you were late to a class or to school. You'd have to get to school 30 minutes early and sat in silence supervised in the gym. If you read or did homework that was fine. It's not a class as it takes place outside of regular hours.
We had in school suspension for actual behavior problems. You'd get a bunch of busy work from your teachers, and get to spend all day in a single classroom. You were in a little cubicle so you couldn't see each other, there was no talking, and you'd get to eat lunch there too.
If you were perpetually in trouble or constantly late to everything you might get what we called Saturday Work Detail where you showed up The Breakfast Club style on a weekend day, but instead of being in detention you scraped gum of the underside of the bleachers, or picked up trash, or did some sort of menial labor. It would be a few hours.
And then out of school suspension where the infraction was so bad you were temporarily suspended from school. The kids that end up with this don't actually think it's a punishment but the days are all unexcused and it honestly fucks up your grades and attendance. This is a case of the longterm consequences are usually lost on the kids who end up with it situation.
mando_ad@reddit
At my school it was quietly doing homework until time was up or you ran out of homework, at which point you had to copy stuff out of a textbook or dictionary. It mostly felt like the actual punishment was missing the bus and/or having to find another way home.
Luckily, by the time I started really racking up detentions, I only lived about a mile (1.6ish km) from school and just walked home anyway.
Agitated_Honeydew@reddit
Even missing the bus wasn't that big of a punishment, once you knew the people in your neighborhood with extra-curriculars.
If you knew the theatre or band geeks were getting out at like 5, it was pretty easy to bum a ride home.
PerfectlyCalmDude@reddit
You sit in a classroom for an hour with the teacher who is mad at you, and you don't even get to do homework.
RedLegGI@reddit
Boring
SeparateMongoose192@reddit
When I was in school, detention was in the teacher's classroom, who gave you detention for like 30 minutes after school. Usually, you just had to sit there and it was usually just the one person unless that teacher had given more than one detention. There was also in school suspension. That was typically for more serious rule breaking. You sat in a room all day with the other kids who had it and you pretty much had to do your school work.
KaBar42@reddit
I never had detention in high school, but I did hear stories from guys who did.
So there were two types. And it was called detention, it was JuG (Justice under God, Catholic school). There was late JuG, which is what you would get for being late to class. That was 30 minutes. And then there was just JuG, which was for disciplinary issues. Such as cheating or fighting or things that weren't serious enough to justify suspension or expelling, but did need to be addressed. From my understanding, generally speaking, when you went to JuG, you had to write some sort of sentence over and over again until the half hour or one hour was up. Teachers had discretion on whether they gave you JuG or not. There were two instances in which I probably deserved JuG, but I ended up avoiding it.
Regarding finding the love of your life, unless you happened to be gay, and someone else also just happened to be gay and you both were assholes enough to get JuG (or both just frequently tardy enough to get late JuG) the numbers probably weren't in your favor, even less so than a public school.
Studious_Noodle@reddit
Justice Under God? They actually called it that?
KaBar42@reddit
I shit you not, that was the name.
Great school, but that was indeed cringe worthy.
That being said, it might be something in my area. Because my sister also went to a different Catholic high school and I am pretty sure she also had JuG there.
Subvet98@reddit
Mostly read or did homework
passionfruittea00@reddit
I haven't been in school in 14 years, but when I was, it was really just studying or reading a book. No phones, no talking. Just sit quietly, do homework, or read. It wasn't bad
jjmawaken@reddit
Pretty boring, you just sit there and do nothing
Specific-Jury4270@reddit
never been in detention.
More_Possession_519@reddit
Just boring. Had to do homework usually. I would read a book. Mostly just do something quietly.
In middle school (ages 12-14ish) we watched school house rock as punishment.
tangouniform2020@reddit
Mid 70s. Depended on the teacher. The official rule was silence, doing either homework or reading. One teacher did that, then after the principals left she would start talking about the world. She was pretty cool. Wound up being my honors English teacher.
kdex86@reddit
The few times I actually had detention the proctor made me write an essay on why I was there and how I could prevent it from happening again. You were expected to hand it in after a certain amount of time passed (30 or 60 minutes), or be forced to come back to detention the next day.
So I was stuck after school writing an essay that wouldn't be graded or applied as "extra credit" and you still had to do your regular homework after leaving detention.
I'd rather have the "monitored study hall" where I could do my homework in a quiet environment.
_S1syphus@reddit
My school didn't have detention, we had In-School Suspension (ISS) where do to disruptive or disobedient behavior, you were sent to a quiet classroom with a teacher dedicated for that specific purpose. You we're discouraged from socializing and told to read, do homework, or maybe fill out a form on your poor behavior. Once that period was up, you'd leave and go to class unless you were bad enough they wanted you there for the whole day. It was also where you would go instead of the cafeteria for lunch if you misbehaved
glendacc37@reddit
We were to be quiet and do homework or study. We of course tried to socialize when the monitor wasn't looking or paying attention. In my day, this usually meant passing notes since there were no cellphones.
PeteLattimer@reddit
Worst part for me at least is that you would miss your bus, so you had to either call your parents or walk home depending on how far you lived from school
Agitated_Honeydew@reddit
The thing was that after school detention ended the same time as the kids doing extra curriculars, like football and band went home. So if you knew a kid from your neighborhood that was an athlete or band geek, it was pretty easy to hitch a ride.
Samson_J_Rivers@reddit
I spent probably 1/3 of my sophomore year in in-school suspension, which was detention but all day. It was sitting and staring at a white wall while the secondary ROTC instructor gave occasional lectures on discipline and good conduct. The whole school day was just that. All 8 hours of school. If you were given assignments from your normal teachers to be completed, he would make you do them, and if you didn't finish them or do them, then you had to stare at them. This didn't happen much because I was in a school made for 2k students and we had 4.3k so homework wasn't a thing. If you disobeyed, he would eject you and you would be actually suspended. If this happened to you more than 4 times, you were expelled. Thankfully the teacher knew I had already committed to an enlistment in the army and I was in there for fighting for somewhat good reasons so I survived and was never once ejected. I got detention one time, the overseer of it was THE OTHER ROTC instructor, he just told me to get out. "You served your time." Because it was after school detention when i had just left In School Suspension 🤣.
Electrical-Ad1288@reddit
I've been in detention multiple times. It depends on the group that day as well as the teacher monitoring it. A lot of the time I would just do my homework. Other times, you get to witness the hilarious antics the school's most interesting characters.
AnthonyRules777@reddit
No, you're supposed to just sit there. You can read or even do homework depending on the rules. No talking though.
GirlScoutSniper@reddit
Detention at my school in the early 1980s we sat in a room and weren't allowed to talk, read or do homework. Sgt Sweeny was usually the proctor, and he was sure to get your name if you didn't follow rules. I usually gave him a fake name if that happened.
december14th2015@reddit
It's boring as fuuuuuuuck.
IT_ServiceDesk@reddit
I just got to do my homework the one time I had it. It was actually great because I didn't have to do it at home.
Mega_Dragonzord@reddit
We used to have to copy lines from a book, if you didn't get "enough" done you could be required to repeat detention to do more lines. My parents successfully told the school where to head in and I did homework during mine the few times I had it after that.
DOMSdeluise@reddit
its boring, you just sit there
BeerJunky@reddit
As an adult with 2 jobs and 2 small kids where do I sign up for this period where I can just quietly sit there?
EcstasyCalculus@reddit
No personal entertainment devices or food or drink allowed, still want to take that deal?
da_chicken@reddit
They said:
Of course they would take that deal. They would pay for the privilege.
BeerJunky@reddit
Yup.
watadoo@reddit
Was gonna say !!
Current_Poster@reddit
For serious, being in the selection-pool for jury duty, not being picked for a jury, and getting to go home after a certain amount of time is about the closest to detention that I've ever had, as an adult. Maybe that? :)
callmeseetea@reddit
99% of the time it was a few hours after school and you were in a classroom with 3-30 other ppl and basically had to stay silent.
One time though, the majority of the senior class cheated on the same test because someone took a photo of the answers and texted it around. I mean HUNDREDS of us got caught. We all had detention at the same time in the cafeteria cause that’s the only place that could hold us all. Obviously that one was a bit more lax 😂
anonymouse278@reddit
At my high school it was just sitting in a classroom. Talking to other people got you in trouble so we would just do homework or put our heads down and rest.
Movies and tv add a lot of unsupervised time to portrayals of school for the purposes of drama and plot advancement. Like... we had four minutes between classes to get to our lockers if needed and then get to the next class, which might be in another building entirely or several floors away. There was no time for the kind of lengthy social exchanges you see happening in the halls in movies.
Delicious_Oil9902@reddit
I had detention twice in high school. First time we helped the groundskeeper find animal carcasses because there was a badger on the property somewhere. Second time I scrubbed scalpels in the bio lab.
Appropriate_Copy8285@reddit
I was in detention once. We could only study or read for 4 hours in a classroom with a teacher. If you talked, you got double detention. If you used a phone, you got double Saturday detention. If you called the teacher a ignorant piece of shit, you got out of detention, but in school suspension to indefinitely take it's place....I only got detention once, but in school suspension many of times.
CharacterEconomics73@reddit
You just sit there, do nothing
Weightmonster@reddit
FYI “detention” can also refer to other types of lock up in the US, not just at school.
anclwar@reddit
I missed too many days of school my senior year and had to attend detention to make up the hours so I could graduate. The math didn't actually work out 1:1 but for a week straight, I sat in a classroom after school for an hour and stared at a wall or read a book. Because it was the end of the year, the monitor didn't care if people talked, but usually they would maintain a silent room and people would do homework.
Callaloo_Soup@reddit
Detention never really bothered me, but I was never sent to the more severe one at my school where everyone sits in a personal white box for the entire day. Each cubicle was the width of a desk and pretty tall, so there was no way to see one another much less socialize.
There was never any room for me. I’d end up in the overflow in the cafeteria, which was a wide open space with about a student per each very large table.
I think they might’ve been required to do classwork in the cubicled room, but I don’t think we were allowed to do anything in the cafeteria probably because it was such a wide open space that’s be difficult to police.
As someone who was always on the go, it was kind of relaxing to have nothing to do but sit.
I’d position myself so I could talk to people if I wanted to, but I can’t remember actually doing that. I just chilled.
In early elementary school we’d have to stay inside for recess as our equivalent of detention, which was far more devastating, although we’d end up having fun anyway. I think it was just the idea of having something taken away that was bothersome.
Our recess was also our teacher’s one time to eat, pee, photocopy, and socialize, so we’d often be left unsupervised with a teacher just popping a head in the room once in a while.
That got wild. We’d play War and all sorts of games in addition of the game of trying not to get caught. Get we’d still grumble about missing recess, although we probably had more fun with out silent Lord of the Flies reenactments.
brzantium@reddit
My high school had a policy that if you were late to a particular class three times, you were automatically given lunch detention. Freshman year, my first and second period classes were on complete opposite sides of the campus. I had just enough time to get from one to the other. Anyhow, I was late three times. I showed up to lunch detention and no one was there. No students, no teacher, no principal, nobody. I just went to the cafeteria and had lunch as usual.
vcrfuneral_@reddit
We called it ISS but you sit in a room with a teacher watching and you do your assignments. You aren't allowed to talk to one another or use your phone. Then you leave when the day ends
HighFiveKoala@reddit
I have never been formally sent to detention for disciplinary reasons but got a mini one for forgetting my homework. The teacher said anyone who forgot their homework would have to come in early and stay for 10 minutes the next day. I forgot my homework that time and so I had to show up. I turned in my homework, sat there for 10 minutes, and then left.
Thatonetwin@reddit
So it depends based on your school. I went to 1 school where you sat in a desk on the stage in the cafeteria facing away from the other students. Another school I went to just had you go to a specific classroom (usually whichever teacher had lunch detention) and you'd eat you lunch. Usually infractions would bvary but it was usually if you were late to many times, didn't have your locker locked or was caught in you phone during school hours.
introvert-i-1957@reddit
The only time I had detention I started working on homework but the teacher said it wasn't allowed. Had to sit with our heads down for an hour. Sometime in the early 70s (I'm old)
northbyPHX@reddit
It really depends on the school, and the level of offense.
At least when I was in grade school, some offenses are light enough that you only get detention during the lunch period. You sit on a separate table, ordered not to talk (unless you want a more severe punishment), finish your lunch, and sit there until lunch is over. The detention table is in a very conspicuous area, so the humiliation factor is big.
More serious offense will land you in what my school called “in school suspension.” You get taken to a separate room, can’t speak, and you stay there until your parents pick you up. That’s when school officials tell your parents what happened, and you go home, and get ready for a grand beating that you leave you unable to walk for some time.
If it’s for a really bad offense, there will be no detention: the police will simply take you away.
resiyun@reddit
Detention is literally u just sitting in a classroom, usually you’re not allowed to be on your phone so you have to just read or do homework
Astarkraven@reddit
Detention isn't really a "class" and it isn't chaotic and fun like in the movies. Usually it's just "sit here silently and read or get homework done for an hour after school". I only experienced it once, in 7th grade, but that was the case for me - being kept for an hour after school and just getting some homework done.
Hilariously, the reason for that detention was over the top ridiculous and the teacher who gave it to me dumped me on a different teacher because she had to leave. The different teacher happened to be my favorite that year and he also thought the detention reason was batshit insane, so he shared some snacks with me and didn't make me remain silent for the hour, like the other teacher had ordered. 😆
DesertWanderlust@reddit
I got detention early on in 6th grade to make up for my chronic absences (I hated the school, so would fake being sick). What it did was introduce me to a slew of bad influences that I then gravitated toward as my life fell apart. I like to think of that as the beginning of a very dark period.
Angsty_Potatos@reddit
Boring it's study hall basically
NoTomatillo@reddit
Never got a Saturday detention like they showed in the movie. But I got several after school detentions in my middle school for being late which I thought was pretty stupid. All you do is sit there and do your hw.
AncientPublic6329@reddit
It’s basically a more quiet study hall.
sweetEVILone@reddit
It’s not a class
ShakarikiGengoro@reddit
Had detention once for a dunb reason. When I got there I knew the teacher in charge and he just let me leave. Its not that strict.
Aggressive_FIamingo@reddit
I only ever got lunch detention - I just sat at my desk, ate lunch, and read a book. Pretty uneventful, I actually enjoyed it. 10/10, would recommend.
Happy_Can8420@reddit
Got detention in middle school for self defense. Old ass lady in there literally made it the second longest 7 hours of my life. I wish I hadn't listened to a word she said.
IrianJaya@reddit
In my school it meant you had to stay after school and sit in a room quietly, no talking at all or they might give you more detention days. You had to bring homework or a book to read. If you brought nothing, they'd make you copy a random page of the dictionary. If two friends were there at the same time they were sent to opposite sides of the room, and their desks were made to face away from each other.
Going home meant you had to ride the activity bus with the people who stayed late for sports, academic clubs, drama, band, etc. And they would all know that you were there for detention, so it added to the embarrassment.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
My high school basically made us stay after classes and work with the janitors. Vacuuming, wiping down chalk boards, mopping, wiping down cafeteria tables, etc.
For me it was a double punishment because I’d have to stay after and help the janitors then I’d be late for crew practice so the boats would already be on the water without me and the coach would just smoke me. Pushups, crunches, squats, running, and rowing machine. It suuuuucked.
47-30-23N_122-0-22W@reddit
It's a small brick room with no sunlight. Really quiet when the teacher isn't yelling.
Cheap_Coffee@reddit
Yes. The Breakfast Club is actually a documentary.
Designer_Head_3761@reddit
I had “detention” many times. All it was was you were put in a room with other trouble makers, not allowed to talk and work on BS school work till end of period. Most times I just slept. Good days
Strangy1234@reddit
I went to a strict religious school and we had to spend the hour writing the school handbook. If you didn't write "enough" your detention was rescheduled. Im jealous of the public school kids whose detentions were basically our "study halls"
JoulesMoose@reddit
In my school detentions were held by the teacher who set them so you stayed late after school with that teacher and the rules were also slightly different based on the teacher. Some teachers had you help them with their classroom because using detention as a study hall didn’t feel like much of a punishment to them, this would usually just be simple organizing work or laying things out for the next day.
Charliegirl121@reddit
Nope, as someone who got detention a number of times, you had to sit in a classroom, and there was always a teacher there. Don't believe what you see in movies or TV shows. The truth is made up to get you to watch.
GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit
As a regular denizen of detention, I can tell you it was incredibly boring. Nothing interesting happened.
You did your homework. Read a book. Then went home.
Fappy_as_a_Clam@reddit
I spent a lot of time on detention (because fuck the police, that's why!)
You sit there, quietly.
No you don't have fun, no you don't meet the love of your life. You sit there and aren't allowed to talk, and you work on your homework or you read a book.
No talking, no sleeping, no anything other than the above.
MrLongWalk@reddit
No, it’s not like the movies.
You sit quietly with whatever other kids got detention, some schools let you do homework, others make you do homework or community service. It’s also not as common as movies would depict.
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
I had detention once. It was boring. It was embarrassing. Never did it again.
HoyAIAG@reddit
Boring
SuCzar@reddit
I got detention once in high school, and was mortified because I was an uber nerd who never got in trouble. (The detention was for being late to my 1st period class too many times). It was just kids sitting in a room without talking for an hour after school, and I got so much work done I left thinking this was awesome and I should get detention more often.
PineapplePza766@reddit
I went to detention to take an online college class lol during high school so I was cool with the teacher and I got to fuck around if I wanted to. Everyone else was in trouble and had to do on paper homework only 😂
BullfrogPersonal@reddit
My jr high had them. You gad to stay after school and write the school rules over and over.
High school had them but you would just hang out.
PossibleJazzlike2804@reddit
Detention for me consisted of sitting in a room smaller than a classroom made of individual wooden desks with dividers. It was half or full day or days of school where we had to write a letter to the person we offended and had to rewrite said paper to the likings of the person in charge.
Thegreatesshitter420@reddit
Im not american, but we have detention over here as well; you literally just sit in a room during lunch, and if you are in detention bc you didnt do work, you do that work, and stay in the room until lunch is over.
Appropriate-Food1757@reddit
For me yeah it was fun. Not as fun as in school suspension I had to stay in my science class so got rotate through the other kids.
My crime was always just skipping class, I got a little carried away Junior year and they did a little intervention on me.
MyFace_UrAss_LetsGo@reddit
It wasn’t called detention when I was in school. It was called ISS or ISI, in school suspension/isolation. We were in a room with walls separating each desk so you couldn’t see other students. The teacher was always really strict yet kinda cool at the same time, as long as the kids weren’t being dicks.
Yuki-Maria@reddit
Read, make up work your missing, homework, sit there and watch the clock go until your free to leave. Usually there was a teacher, a really strict one, making sure everyone was silent and behaving, if anyone tried to do anything remotely fun, well guess what you got suspended or in school suspended meaning you’d probably be there again all week.
Pazguzhzuhacijz@reddit
At my Catholic school we had to copy from the Bible the whole time..
Chzncna2112@reddit
Boring as hell forced to do B.S. nothing work
real_lampcap_@reddit
It depends. I got detention a lot for skipping class. Sometimes my little brother would be in detention with me (ik we were both delinquents) and we would have fun joking around making fun of the detention teacher. But if it was me and some other people I didn't know, I just did my homework or played on my tablet. It's not really fun but it's also not that bad. Just boring.
Prometheus_303@reddit
Detention isn't a class...
As to what you do... There is a lot of variation there. Depends on which teacher is in control.
Usually you just sit at a desk for a half hour or so quietly. Maybe do your homework, maybe read. Usually with limited interactions with others. It's punishment not social hour.
Certain teachers may "theme" detention. PE / gym teacher might have you run laps. Maybe the drama teacher might have you paint sets for the upcoming play.
smappyfunball@reddit
I was in high school when the breakfast club was new and we didn’t have anything like that. Detention was 50 minutes after school and you sat there quietly.
I brought a book cause I always carried a book with me everywhere, so I would just read.
I didn’t get detention much because my brother was a maniac in school and was always getting in trouble so I learned to keep a low profile.
When shit blew up for me it usually meant a week of suspension. I was kind of an all or nothing kid.
Dont_Wanna_Not_Gonna@reddit
What’s it like? It’s like sitting quietly and reading or working on homework in an empty classroom. Is there no discipline at all in school in Your Country™️that involves being removed from class?
Electrical-Pollution@reddit
Our detention was in a rather well equipped school library. It was heaven!
No-Community-1822@reddit
Boring. When it came to fights, I had to write a long essay explaining my side of the story on how the fights started, and then I had to wait for my parents to pick me up. There’s no talking. No phones allowed. You just sit there or do your homework.
sjedinjenoStanje@reddit
We weren't allowed to do our homework or read something. We had to sit in a room with the other detainees and just stare at the wall for an hour. It fucking sucked.
5432198@reddit
The closest I ever got to detention was having to sit out during recess in 1st grade because I forgot to do my homework. The first graders had their own playground next to the first grade building. So I had to sit against the building why I watched all the other kids play.
I had some awesome friends though. They asked the playground supervisor if they could just sit out with me. Playground lady was cool and said sure.
somecow@reddit
Do all your homework for the week (yes please), don’t have to fuck with going to actual class (no lugging around textbooks, they have them there), have to eat lunch at a table with all the detention kids and eat what they serve at the actual cafeteria instead of the junk food line with pizza and all that (actually the cafeteria food can usually be really good).
Stay quiet and don’t talk to anyone else (already do that), don’t have to see your teachers (or idiot classmates), and just read, draw, maybe watch a movie or three.
Never got the chance to do homework at home, never had good food at home, and sure, I’ll sit there and chill for a day. Plus, get detention enough, and they will work with you on getting away from whatever caused it (yes, I hit bullies, get them tf away from me).
Don’t have to go as soon as you get to school, only when class begins. So get SUPER high (high school, duh), enjoy a day off, chow down on a philly cheesesteak at lunch, finish all your shit, watch movies, and go back to class the next day refreshed.
anneofgraygardens@reddit
it's boring. Your friends probably are not there. It's not fun. You just sit there and don't talk.
i never had in school suspension, which lasts a whole day, but I had after school detention (which was like 45 minutes after school) a number of times, mostly for being late to class. You just sit in a room quietly. other people who have also been given detention, most of whom you probably don't know, are also there. You can do homework or read but there's a teacher there preventing any kind of interesting things from happening.
distrucktocon@reddit
For us it was literally “sit at this desk with walls around you, read this material and do this workbook/quizzes. Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t breathe too loud. Don’t look around. Stare at the wall when you’re finished. Or you’ll get another day of detention.”
StereoSabertooth@reddit
You just sat after school for an hour and did your homework or something. Usually, you couldn't talk or else you'd get more detention but a good portion of the time, teachers wouldn't care as much unless they were specifically strict.
When I went to detention it was just a bunch of students chilling on our phones while the teacher did the same. It was supposed to be a punishment but with how common detention was for students, it just became a standard that nobody gave af about and teachers just became super lenient over time.
StereoSabertooth@reddit
Sometimes we goofed off but it depends on if you got a strict teacher or not. There were times I sat in silence and others where we were cool with the staff and hung out and yapped with them for an hour. A couple of times we would leave early because the staff didn't want to be there just as much as we didn't.
mothwhimsy@reddit
The only time I had detention it was for not doing the homework so I just did the homework
teslaactual@reddit
Basically a study session, no talking no goofing off you'd either do homework read or stare off into space, if you had an old school teacher she'd make you write what you've done wrong over and over or write an apology to the teacher
cmhoughton@reddit
In elementary school (not sure how old I was, probably 10 or so) I had the principal give me and boy I was friends with detention IN HIS OFFICE.
I was freakin’ out, what was that going to be like, but I guess elementary age kids didn’t get detention much. Anyway, me & Jeff had a water fight in front of the restrooms using water from adjacent water fountains & made a HUGE mess. We got soaked.
The principal had been a history/social studies teacher & he gave us one hour lessons on ‘civics’ once a week for a month, if I correctly recall… Just me and Jeff and the Principal in his office.
Weird, but me & Jeff didn’t get in any more water fights.
notanotherthrowacc@reddit
Boring as fuck. I had detention a few times in school. I'd have to sit silently, read a book, stare at a wall, and just bide the half hour or hour while a fat sweaty ogre clacked on a computer and munched on doughnuts.
Current_Poster@reddit
Sit. Mostly do homework or sit quietly, unless you got the one psycho who thought it was genuinely about punishment instead of mildly inconveniencing you, banned doing homework and reading and instead either assigned writing that he then tore up in front of everyone you included or you cleaned the parking lot....
...I'm back.
You just mainly couldn't talk, and it took up some of your spare time. Maybe you had to tell your parents you'd be late coming home (if you wouldn't be able to make it home on-time for them coming home, anyway). That's about it.
On the plus side, one time I got a teacher who asked us why we were there, and either offered useful advice on how to not have that happen again or (in one case) decided it was a stupid thing to give a detention over and said the kid could go. (Having shown up, that was (to this guy) enough.)
Nah, at least where I was in school, it was rare for a whole group of friends to be assigned to a detention together. (If a whole group of kids got busted doing the same thing, it pretty much escalated past detention to something else, fast). And you didn't get Breakfast Club style no-supervision moments because the teacher had to hand off to another teacher or admin if they left the area.
The girls I was into never got detention. There might have been some logical connection between those two things, but I doubt it.
Plastic_Primary_4279@reddit
For me, (early 2000’s), it was basically “time out”. Like an extra class (~45 min) after school where all you were allowed to do was schoolwork. No talking, no sleeping, definitely no food or drink… the teacher got some overtime pay and would occasionally walk around, but mostly just do work they needed to do anyways…
At that age, not being able to go home sucks. It also meant not catching your bus and having to wait for reg public transportation or call your parents to pick you up, which always sucks.
Gertrude_D@reddit
Breakfast Club was a good movie premise, but that is not how detention works. They would never leave students unsupervised.
Irresponsable_Frog@reddit
Just sit in a room doing busy work or homework until it’s over. Wasn’t allowed to talk. No electronics or suspension. Pretty boring. Teacher would sit there and just shush us and ignore us. We’d pass notes or pictures. Again boring. Like study hall.
Sleepwalker0304@reddit
My school was so small and rural that detention was actually combined with the after school program. The only difference was that some of the rooms had to be there and the rest elected to be there for the extra help. You could talk quietly, work on homework, work with teachers and get on better terms with them and they honestly didn't care who was there for what in how they interacted with the students.
The school even handed out snack crackers and juice... again, didn't matter if you were there because you had to be or wanted to be, they just figured you'd do better homework if your blood sugar wasn't dive bombing.
This was a really rural school though. My graduating class had 42 people in it.
VillageSmithyCellar@reddit
I got Saturday School several times for being late (my homeroom teacher was a dick, and she wouldn't let me in if I was just two minutes late). It involves sitting, being quiet, and doing homework. Honestly, it was pretty nice. I got my homework done in a controlled environment away from distractions, and then I got to enjoy the rest of the weekend without needing to work.
spanky_macdoogle@reddit
I used to be in detention and in school suspension a lot. I was in gifted classes but I was always getting in trouble anyway. Detention, you just had to be quiet for an hour. Good for homework. In school suspension was my FAVORITE THING. If all of school was like ISS I would have been thrilled.
You got a desk and a packet of all your classwork for the day. No one talked. If you had a question you could ask the teacher on duty. I would finish a day’s worth of work in the first hour and then get to read whatever book I wanted. We took an exercise break, ate lunch, and went home.
Soundwave-1976@reddit
When I had detention duty, it was no talking, no phones, and I would make them copy the complete definition of the word run
That was it, never had a kid finish it, also rarely had them come back. 🤷♂️
ContentiousLlama@reddit
I had to sit in the office and do my homework while trying not to listen to the dean and the attendance secretary gossip about their families.
EcstasyCalculus@reddit
That seems like a way more effective punishment than sitting in silence.
JustAnotherDay1977@reddit
Watch The Breakfast Club.
That_Force9726@reddit
It depends on how defiant you were and/or how weak the teacher was. For the majority, it was just boring.
mmeeplechase@reddit
At my school, we got assigned to a teacher who had some chores to get done, so we were kept pretty busy: stapling packets, cleaning desks, scrubbing whiteboards, sorting pens, etc.
Vallejo_94@reddit
Yeah. The detention mistress was the normally strict but hot English teacher, but dressed like a dominatrix. But i ended up working off each minute of my detention one by one. Then i kept getting more detentions on purpose. I swear this happened.
mongotongo@reddit
I have to start this out with I was not a good kid. I was an absolute nightmare. I only got detention once. The vice principal brought me into the lunch cafeteria to wipe down all the tables after lunch. He made one fatal flaw. He demonstrated what he expected me to do by wiping down the first table and asked me if I understood. A light bulb went off in my head. I had been working in restaurants for a couple of years at this point. But he didn't know that. So I put on a really quizzical look and said "No I don't." Normally, I think most adults would have seen thru the bs and called me on it. But I think he really liked the idea that I was really that dumb when it came to physical labor. So he demonstrated how to wipe down the next table and asked me again. I gave the same answer. There were maybe twenty tables all together. We repeated this for all but one table. I was having really hard time holding back laughing. I finally took pity on the last one and wiped it down. I might have started laughing at that point, but I can't remember.
I never got detention again after that.
MrsBeauregardless@reddit
When I got detention in the ‘80s, I had to stay after school and sit in a classroom for an hour. We were supervised, and we weren’t allowed to talk. We certainly weren’t shown movies. Whether we were permitted to work on homework or read depended on the discretion of the teacher in charge of detention that day.
___coolcoolcool@reddit
Depends on the school. When I was a teacher I would be in charge of lunch detention one week a month. I taught robotics so I made them sort my robot parts and sometimes I would make them listen to spoken word poetry really loud just to troll them a little. But it was all in good fun! 😂
phyncke@reddit
I did detention once in HS and it was called Saturday Squad. We had to do work around the school- cleaning up and stuff like that. Grounds and maintenance stuff that they needed done- it was not bad
UniqueEnigma121@reddit
Think Breakfast Club OP
Salty_Dog2917@reddit
Watch out. I wrote the same comment and it got removed lol.
StrangeLikeNormal@reddit
At my school detentions were served in a classroom right after school. The teach would pick a random number and we would have to sit there quietly and write down the number 1,000 times
8avian6@reddit
In elementary school, we just had to stay an hour after school on Friday and sit with our heads down. In middle and high school, we had to spend our lunch hour in the office and only got a cheese and mustard sandwich for lunch.
Salty_Dog2917@reddit
Just like the breakfast club
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Fluffy-Opinion871@reddit
Boring. No talking. Just sit there.
youngpathfinder@reddit
I had Saturday detention in high school (mid 2000s) for skipping too many classes. I would show up to the school cafeteria. Everyone was spaced equal distance apart at the lunch tables. You’re not allowed to talk. I did homework or read for 3 hours and went home.
redditsuckspokey1@reddit
I thought I would never get detention. I was the "good little kid". Well finally in 7th or 8th grade, forget which but I did get detention because a known bully picked a fight with me and managed to get my arms locked behind me and pick me up. It all happened because I wanted to show off one of the new state quarters (this would have been 98 or 99) and the other kid decided to swipe the coin and I made a ruckus and he then did the arm lock thing.
I got detention for this. It happened 2 ft behind my locker. Never once in my 13 years in school had I ever picked a fight with someone.
FiddleThruTheFlowers@reddit
I worked on homework. If I wasn't working on homework, I was reading.
jimmyjohnjohnjohn@reddit
At my school, if you had detention, it was with the teacher who assigned it. They could give you a half hour or a full hour, and it could be before school or after. After school detention usually resulted in the teacher saying "fuck it, let's go home, don't do it again," before the time was up.
We also had ISS (in school suspension), and that was a lot more like the movies: sitting in a silent room and being bored. ISS was all-day and it was a nice chance to catch up on schoolwork.
WarrenMulaney@reddit
Movies aren’t real.
redditsuckspokey1@reddit
Nor are the characters.
manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit
You do homework or read or just sit quietly for 45 minutes.
APC_ChemE@reddit
You're quiet, sitting at your desk, staring at the clock, reading a book, doing homework, bored out of your mind...
I'd say lunch detention is even worse. The lunch detentions I've had no one actually had their lunch but I always brought my lunch and eatting chips in a room with 20 - 30 other students sitting in complete silence while you crunch on chips is awkward as hell and very quickly I stopped eatting and put my lunch under desk. The second time I got lunch detention, I intentionally didnt bring a lunch.
OhThrowed@reddit
Boring. We sat in a room being quiet until dismissed.
Wielder-of-Sythes@reddit
I sat in the library alone and wrote a line that was something to the effect of “I did x which was against the rules and has resulted in this display action which is a waste of my time” over and over for a while it was really uneventful.