The daft rules about smoking

Today's first period was replaced with a lesson with your form tutor about everyone's favourite Temple Moor fail: the positive discipline system. We've mentioned its inadequacies, stupidities and problems previously in the blog, but today it was taken to a whole new level.

An alright match-the-offence-with-the-punishment exercise was given out and completed. It was relatively easy - but conflicted with the "pyramids". These pillars of positive discipline, mentioned in Year 11's morning assembly, guide pupils and teachers on what crime gives which punishment. For example, the yellow/orange "pyramid" (in quote marks because it's really a triangle, despite what teachers say) says unprovoked assault is a fixed term permanent exclusion. Yet the match-up sheet said it was a detention, isolation or exclusion, depending on the severity of the assault. Make up your minds!

Now let's move on to the smoking. Smoking earns you an instant isolation, according to the pyramid. That's actually quite soft for a punishment, seeing as smoking is against the law for most people in Temple Moor. According to today's match-up sheet, you can get a detention for being around people who are smoking. This seems far too harsh. Is it sensible to punish someone for being in the wrong place and the wrong time? Furthermore, it's punishment for who your friends are. If anything, you should be awarded for not smoking if your friends are: defiance of peer pressure is surely a good thing!

One form tutor remarked "we know where people smoke, so just stay away". At first, this seems like sensible advice, until you realise this: the school knows people smoke and knows where. This raises the troubling question of why the school doesn't stop it happening. It's against the law, so Temple Moor is really stopping the law taking effect! What sort of example is this to its thousands of students?