By Corlan Joubert ’20, Ignacio Perez ’20, William Koehler ’20, Alex Buettgen ’22

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Under the current system of issuing a. Penance Hall (PH), disrupting class and having an untucked shirt can result in the same consequence. It is not fair that minor offenses are treated the same way as more serious offenses. For this reason, PHs should be scalable for the severity of the committed offense. 

For example, a student who does not wear a belt should not get the same punishment as a student who disrespects the teacher. That student should get a PH that is proportionate to his offense. The student who forgot his belt at home should get a 15 minute PH while a student who disrespected a teacher should get the full 30 minute PH.  

Some might say that students won’t learn their lesson if consequences are reduced for infractions such as for dress code. However, nobody wants to serve a PH in the first place because it interferes with the student’s schedule. Therefore, the shorter PHs would still be effective to teach respect for the school’s policies.