Portsmouth- Misbehaving students at Portsmouth High School may soon face a punishment worse than detention; missing Saturday morning cartoons. A proposal raised by the Portsmouth School board calls for having dentitions on Saturdays,  as a way of reducing in house suspensions.

The raised proposal would have a students with disciplinary problems attend special sessions on Saturday mornings, as a way to reduce in-house suspensions. The proposed sessions would go from 8 a.m. to noon and would cost $3,000 a year to pay for staffing.  The measure was raised by school Board member Tim Steele, who tried to placate the other group who would be affected by the proposal. “I know this isn’t good news for parents.” Steele said “But I hope the threat of Saturday classes will make the students think twice before breaking the school rules.”

Peggy Bacon, a parent, voiced her disapproval with the plan, and how it will harm the parents as well as the kids. Bacon works six days a week, including Saturday mornings, and says that having to worry about possibly getting her son to the Saturday session will only make her life more difficult. “I just don’t think it’s going to make any difference, and the parents are going to pay for it—in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturdays.”

Last year 154 students were given in-house suspensions at Portsmouth High School. Students with in-house suspensions are required to spend a school day in an empty classroom with a faculty member observing. Students are not allowed to make up class work they missed while in suspension. One of the proposed benefits of the Saturday sessions would be that students could be punished and not miss class time.