[Anna is a young woman. She is a strong presence, playfully serene, but grounded and somewhat earthy. Her eyes are clear and twinkle with mischief. She is very contemplative, and tends to choose her words very carefully. She is a “hand talker.”]
ANNA
It’s fair to say that most people have seen both sides of punishment. I mean, maybe not me because I’m pretty much a goody-two shoes [shrugs]. My parents really aren’t too strict. There was – in the second grade I was talking in class and the teacher was like [her voice deepens and her expression hardens] “Anna! Go sit in the corner.” So I was kind of like “eek!” [cringes] and went to sit in the corner. [looking up at the ceiling] It was lonely in the corner.
I’m trying to think when I punished someone. [puts a finger on her chin] I’m thinking of all my camp experiences because there must have been a lot… I know I must have… Last years some kids – they had this, like, Lego toy that they really liked and [counts off on her fingers] they were playing with it and running. So I was – I just kind of yelled at them. Nothing really changed at all. I mean, I wasn’t the only one yelling, and it seemed kind of pointless, but that’s the rule at camp – no running in the hall.
Most of my experience with this stuff was at my high school. I was on the judicial board. The hardest case was the very first one I was on. We had to decide whether to suspend this kid – he had physically abused someone, but it wasn’t super-serious. Like, it was significant enough that you couldn’t ignore it, but it wasn’t like – it really wasn’t that big a deal, though. Like a punch [imitates a punch on her own shoulder]. He had just been accepted to college, and if we decided to suspend him, we would have notified the college and they might have changed their minds about accepting him. [pause] I really battled with that choice for a long time. I was kind of the tie-breaker. It was half and half – to suspend him or not. And my close friend was involved, and she was totally against it. She had been punished by the judicial board her freshman year, and she kept saying that since then everyone had been like – like she was devalued, and she had been fighting to reverse that opinion of her ever since then. She was crying about it and really didn’t want that to happen to this kid.
Then on the other side, I had all of my teachers telling me he should be suspended. I went to this private school where we were there from 9-5 and by this time we had been working on this case for something like two and a half hours, and it was 4:55 and everyone was like “Anna, we need a decision now.” I ended up deciding to suspend him. And then I left and I just looked at my friend. Then I went and drove away. Looking back, I don’t think it was the right choice. [shrugs sadly] The thing is was that the only things we could do – we had a choice between like [demonstrates on both hands] him volunteering in the school and him being suspended.
I didn’t think volunteering in the school was good. I mean, what does that have to do with him hitting someone? So he’s suspended, but then he’s just sitting at home and his parents are mad at him. And that didn’t really have anything to do with it either, so I don’t know. It was just like, volunteering wasn’t enough but suspension… So I think we should have made education a part of it. Because that had to do with the problem in the first place.
Punishment? Punishment to me should be part education, but also kind of a little bit of hurt. Because that little bit of hurt lets the person know that it’s not ok. It’s not ok. The education should be a bigger part though. Like maybe 40% hurt and 60% education. I don’t know. If there’s too much hurt, though, it just leads to resentment.
Molly MacLagan
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