Less Harsh Punishments

Published on November 10, 2014

Last updated on November 1, 2024

Vanessa Walsh:

Utah has already begun to incorporate policies and practices that aren’t centered on harsh school discipline. The Canyons School District, for example, has implemented these approaches and is already seeing positive impacts.

At the elementary school I worked at in Canyons District, we did some pretty amazing things. Here’s a blog post I wrote about some of the things we did rather than focus on harsh punishments. I’ll admit, many times it was hard to focus on teaching the kids when the reaction many people want, and I sometimes wanted, was a punishment. But at schools, we are about teaching kids, not about punishing them.