Have you ever gotten punished because of someone else’s actions? Like, you have recess taken away because some kids were talking even though the rest of the class were silent. That is called collective punishment. It’s a serious war crime.

I know, I know, how is something like that a war crime? Well, if some country chose to go to war with another, their allies would have to participate. It would be terrible if the allies would be hated on just because they were allies and had to support that country. This same thing happens in your school. Kids are punished because one just so happened to do something unacceptable.

Even though it’s occasionally very successful for having the culprit brought out, sometimes that’s not always the case. However, if doing this when someone knows who the culprit is, why should other kids be punished? I agree that certain offenses are OK for collective punishment, but some are just not OK.

Take physical education for instance, everyone’s running and doing what they’re supposed to, right? Except, for a select few who think they can get away with it. The teacher notices, and suddenly everyone has to run more. If those select few repeatedly keep doing this, it will last the whole class period. So if the teachers see that some are not running, why not just call those kids out and make only those kids run more? This way, only they have to feel the aftermath of not doing what they’re supposed to.