In School Suspension

"The Truth shall set you free! Unless you killed somebody. In which case,
tell the cops they were breathing when you left the room."
-Stephen Colbert

This has to be a quickie so that we can leave for work on time. Work and me dropping Geoff off at school a couple of minutes after all the other kids get to school. Geoff has in-school suspension today.

Yesterday he punched a kid in the mouth. It is a he said/he said story. The recipient says that Geoff was running in the hallway so he told Geoff to stop running and then Geoff turned around and punched him in the mouth. Geoff said the boy made fun of him and told him to run faster (probably "hey, why don't you run faster?" with a sarcastic tinge in the tone, which Geoff can't differentiate from non-sarcasm too well)... and he isn't sure why he ended up punching the kid, but he knew he was being made fun of.

Today is a half day at school... so the in-school today is better than an in-school on Monday when he'd have a full day. But he doesn't see it that way. I'd be all "oh, okay. Good! A half day counting as a whole day..." but he's all "it's useless to go to school because it is only three hours..."

He's also disgruntled because half days on Fridays kill his Gym class and that's his favorite part of the week. But he wouldn't have Gym anyway today even if it was a full day because he has in school suspension.

We went around for 20 minutes this morning as to why this is better than any other day of the week for him...

I told him it's like being sentenced to life in prison but they let you do community service only, and you go home at the end of the day.

Take it. It's a good deal. Oh my God I sound like a public defender.

Out of school suspension doesn't really impact him too much. He likes being home, even if I don't let him DO anything. So in school has more of an impact. He has to sit there and do class work, with the assistant principal as his companion for three hours. And he has to write a note of apology to this kid. Which, I'm sure, is going to be a nice note (said with a tinge in the tone).

So yeah, we're off in about 3 minutes so I gotta wrap this up. My buddy Wayne once told me that boys always rather getting a punishment over with. If you give them the option: "Spanking or 3 hours in the corner in time out" they almost always take the spanking. It's over quickly, done, end of conversation, life goes on. To me, this in school suspension is like a spanking. Quick, done. End. Geoff though, he is arguing with me about it and it just is ridiculous. I think he would argue himself into a longer punishment just to prove HIS point instead of taking the logical easier punishment. Just so he could be proven right or something.

Does not bode well for his future, I don't think.

Anyway. More later.