Demerit (school discipline)

{{Short description|School punishment}}

A demerit is a point given to a student as a penalty for bad behavior.{{Cite book|last=Rosen|first=Louis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FBOAwAAQBAJ&q=Demerit+(school+discipline)&pg=PA38|title=School Discipline: Best Practices for Administrators|date=2005-02-01|publisher=Corwin Press|isbn=978-1-4833-6139-0|language=en}} Under this once common practice, a student is given a number of merits during the beginning of the school term and a certain number of merits are deducted for every infraction committed.{{Cite book|title=School Discipline: Best Practices for Administrators, Second Edition|last=Rosen|first=Louis|date=2005|publisher=Corwin Press|isbn=1412913489|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|pages=38}}

Schools use the demerit record within a point-based system to punish misbehavior. After a certain number of demerits are accumulated, the student is given detention, loss of privileges (e.g., being denied field trips and participation in school events), or some other punishment{{Cite web |url=https://discover.randolphschool.net/blog/k12/2015/08/28/the-demise-of-the-demerit |title=The Demise of the Demerit |access-date=2019-10-10 |archive-date=2020-06-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614143632/http://discover.randolphschool.net/blog/k12/2015/08/28/the-demise-of-the-demerit |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |url=https://www.riverdale.k12.wi.us/middle/demerit-system.cfm |title=Riverdale School District - Demerit System |access-date=2019-10-10 |archive-date=2019-10-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191010201135/https://www.riverdale.k12.wi.us/middle/demerit-system.cfm |url-status=dead }} based on the seriousness and frequency of the infraction.{{Cite book|title=The Palgrave International Handbook of School Discipline, Surveillance, and Social Control|last1=Deakin|first1=Jo|last2=Taylor|first2=Emmeline|last3=Kupchik|first3=Aaron|date=2018|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=9783319715582|location=|pages=179}}

One criticism of demerit systems is that they create bookkeeping problems and can result in students receiving severe punishments for minor infractions.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1997-02-12-3133262-story.html|title=School's Demerit System May be Expelled * Panel in Northampton Says Simpler Method Needed to Make Punishment Fit 'Crime.'|date=12 February 1997 }} Another criticism is that older adolescents learn how to manipulate a demerit system.{{cite book|title=School Discipline: Best Practices for Administrators|author=Louis Rosen}} There are also critics who cite that demerits wear parents down with constant parental meetings and leave students behind due to missed instructional time as a consequence of punishments such as detention and suspension.{{Cite book|title=Choosing Charters: Better Schools or More Segregation?|last1=Rotberg|first1=Iris C.|last2=Glazer|first2=Joshua L.|date=2018|publisher=Teachers College Press|isbn=9780807759004|location=New York|pages=74}}