Students in Portsmouth who have disciplinary problems may have to spend an extra day in school.

Parents and students are opposed to a suggested change in school rules that would cause students with disciplinary issues to attend classes on Saturday mornings.
The Portsmouth School Board discussed a motion Monday night to require students with discipline problems to serve their detentions on Saturday mornings. This would replace the existing practice of in-house suspensions, which take place during the school week.
Tim Steele, a member of the School Board, presented the motion during the meeting. He explained that the change to Saturday morning detentions would hopefully lead to fewer in-house suspensions. This would allow students to serve their detentions without missing any class time.
Steele said that smoking is one of the major disciplinary issues dealt with at the high school.
“I just want to keep students from smoking in the high school bathrooms,” Steele said. “There are other problems, but smoking is by far the biggest one.”
Peggy Bacon, whose son attends Portsmouth High School, was opposed to the idea.
“I work six days a week—including Saturday morning,” Bacon said. “It’s bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday. Why should I have to worry about Saturday as well?”
Bacon was also opposed to the cost of this program. Steele said that this new policy would cost about $3,000 a year to pay for staff.
“I just don’t think it’s going to make any difference,” Bacon said. “And the parents are going to pay for it—in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturday s.”
Bob Farley, who lives in Portsmouth, said that he agreed with the motion.
“Parents can whine all they want about this,” Farley said, “but maybe it’s time parents in America were made to take a little responsibility for their kids.”
Farley said that kids aren’t learning any respect for rules.
“Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons they’ll start wising up,” he said.
Senior Lisa Gallagher was one of five Portsmouth High students to attend the meeting. She said that although she had never served a detention, she is opposed to this proposed rule change.
“I think it’s just being done to make life easier for the faculty,” she said, “so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week.”
The discussion of the issue ended with a 5-3 vote to table the issue until the next School Board meeting. At this meeting, which will take place on March 7, Steele will present figures on in-house detentions from this school year.