‘Children should never be treated as inmates.’ School’s detention garb angers parents

Students serving detention in an Oklahoma middle school last week wore prison-orange T-shirts while they scrubbed windows at the school, a punishment that angered many who saw a photo on social media.

The superintendent of public schools in Ardmore, Kim Holland, who did not know that the students had been dressed like that, was bothered, too. His response to the Daily Ardmoreite: “Absolutely not.”

The uproar began Thursday after Tulsa motivational speaker Courtland Warren posted a photo of the students on his Facebook page.

“A friend of mine visits schools across the state speaking to inspire young people. He’s goes into this middle school today in Ardmore, OK and learns that kids in detention have to wear orange shirts (provided) and clean the building,” Warren wrote.

“How would you feel knowing your child is made to feel like a prisoner for maybe “talking in class”? Thoughts? If I’m overreacting calm me down. But something about this doesn’t feel right.”

As of Tuesday, Warren’s post had attracted nearly 500 comments, many from people angry like Warren about the orange T-shirts — the same color as prison uniforms, people pointed out.

“Children should never be treated as inmates or janitorial staff as a form of correction by a school,” Facebook user Toni McGhee wrote on Warren’s post. “The messages this sends are many and could be life altering.”

“I’m not okay with that,” wrote Facebook user Irene Montoya. “How about shirts that had a positive message of responsibility. (Example-shirts that say, “I chose to do this.”) A lesson in personal responsibility seems way more empowering that acting like they’re in jail. AND as a mother, I would go off. How dare them cast that spell.”

Other people didn’t seem to be bothered by the T-shirts and voiced support for making the students do physical chores for their punishment.

“When I was in middle school, kids in Saturday school cleaned the locker rooms. In high school, they would clean at the school or the football field. Oh noooo, kids actually getting punished for breaking the rules!!” wrote Facebook user Emerald Lynn.

“Every action has a reaction. Better they learn it now than later,” wrote Travis Smith. “Also the school will be clean and classes not disrupted. Win win win.”

“Well it’s a better alternative to the paddle I got as a kid.... Punishment kept me outta jail... You turn 18... got in trouble and have to do community serves... seriously what’s the difference... AND SPEAKING AS A PARENT IN THIS SCHOOL DISTRICT!!!” wrote Rebecca Wheeler.

Superintendent Holland told KXII that he didn’t know about the detention until a parent called him about the photo on Facebook.

“We just didn’t feel like it represented our kids well or our school,” Holland told the TV station. “It’s just something we wanted to stop immediately.”

He told KXII and the Ardmoreite that the orange T-shirts had been donated to the school and he didn’t know they were being used that way. The shirts are gone, he told KXII.

“That was something they were evidently using to differentiate the kids who were in detention,” Holland told the newspaper. “It struck me as making the kids feel as though they were in prison, which is inappropriate.”

He said no one asked him or his administrative staff before they ran the detention that way.

“I think the administration there has learned the lesson — at least run it by us before you do it so we can either support it or say let’s not do that, that doesn’t represent Ardmore City Schools,” he told KXII.

Students won’t be doing any more chores during detention, either. The kids will go back to serving in-school detention in the classroom, Holland told the TV station.