When Good Kids Are Punished: The Injustices of Collective Punishment in School
By Kianna Amaya
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During school lunch one day, a few boys at the table in the farthest corner of the cafeteria, who were play-fighting, started getting loud. Our school principal yelled at them to stop repeatedly, and I don’t know how many more times our principal got mad that day, but I remember the result: our whole grade was put on silent lunch. Even though it was clear who was causing the disruption.
My friends and I were angry and disappointed. We were very resentful of those boys, too, for ruining our lunch, all for something we didn’t do. But a silent lunch wasn’t even a day or even a week. It was indefinite until our principal felt like we “learned our lesson” (whatever lesson that was) and started behaving better. I guess he felt we learned it after about a month of silent lunch. All I know is that I learned innocence doesn’t always matter in the end. And the thought I remember the most when this happened was “What is the point of being good if I can be punished anyway?”
I came home and told my mom about how unfair it was. I was so mad. And she was too. She’ll tell you even now how ridiculous she thought the “punishment” was. Eventually, my science teacher felt bad and let some of us come into her room for lunch to talk and watch March Madness on the smart board.
That month of silent lunch was a form of collective punishment. Collective punishment is the classroom management technique where teachers (or principals) will discipline a group for the actions of one or a few. Teachers often find collective punishment to have an immediate effect, like when the entire class is threatened with losing recess if they don’t clean up after themselves; it’s likely to work in the short term. But in the long term, it doesn’t do much for improving student behavior, and many people find them to be morally questionable, too. The lines blur in terms of who’s responsible. The children behaving poorly may even continue to because they’ll just share the blame with everyone else.
And not all collective punishments are equal, at least in my view. I’m sure many of us can remember at least one time when this happened when we were in school. Like recess being cancelled because one kid was throwing balled-up paper around the classroom. As I was writing this, I came across an Instagram reel joking about how teachers only gave us five seconds to drink from the water fountain after recess and how we’d barely get rehydrated at all. That’s definitely a collective punishment of sorts.
Collective punishments in school showed us all how easily fairness could be disregarded and how powerless we were to stop it. That was the lesson that sticks. They condition children to accept injustice. Innocence and “goodness” won’t always protect you. Compliance is above all.
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Despite what many may think, children as young as six or seven already have a strong sense of justice and fairness. A University of Virginia study found that six and seven-year-olds found it was unfair when only one or a few individuals caused the disruption or misbehaved. Children are internalizing this, just like me and my friends, at around 12 years old.
It’s not uncommon to hear people say they don’t like children, or maybe even that they hate children. And it’s never really seen as socially unacceptable to say these days. But I think that because it's an acceptable way to view children, as adults, we generally see children as inconvenient and a nuisance, even if just subconsciously. And historically, adults have viewed children as less capable of independent thought, though modern research shows us that yes, they can, and they are more capable of complex thought. As adults, we wouldn’t tolerate being punished like this. If all employees were punished for one employee’s mistake, no one would take that lying down.
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Collective punishment is convenient yet ineffective for long-term development. Teachers are aware of this, and many really don’t like to use collective punishment when they can help it. But teachers are overworked and underpaid, especially in the U.S, which leads to the need to make rash decisions to manage a group of kids every day. One teacher, Angela Watson, shared a story about one of her students who cried all night after being punished along with her classmates for something she didn’t do. Watson admitted that this made her rethink collective punishment altogether.
The message to children is, “You didn’t do anything wrong, but accept this anyway.” That doesn’t teach accountability or personal responsibility. Honestly, it’s more of compliance training. Over time, kids just accept the punishment. They likely feel resentful and angry but resign, like me. Children go through a set of micro-injustices that sort of prime them to believe unfairness is just a normal part of life. I mean, the adults did it, it must be for a reason, right?
And the thought I remember the most when this happened was “What is the point of being good if I can be punished anyway?”
So, it’s obvious I have not forgotten the silent lunch debacle at all. I remember it regularly. Because it wasn’t about effectively correcting behavior. It was really injustice, control, and compliance. Collective punishment in school parallels things we see in society at large, guilt by association, profiling, “wrong place, wrong time.” Schools are meant to prepare kids for adulthood, but collective punishment only prepares them to tolerate injustice and comply regardless of their culpability.
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