School on Saturday? Students and parents are not happy.

Students in Portsmouth may be facing a longer school week due to disciplinary problems. Both students and parents alike are not supportive of the issue.

During a meeting of the Portsmouth School Board on Monday evening, board member Tim Steele made a motion to approve a new policy which would require students who have disciplinary problems during the week to attend a 4 hour school session on Saturdays.

Peggy Bacon, a parent, is no happy about the proposal.

“I work six days a week, including Saturday morning,” she said. “It’s bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday. Why should I have to worry about Saturday as well.”

The new disciplinary measure is being proposed in an effort to reduce the number of in-house suspensions. The new policy, however, would require an allocation of $3,000 per year for staffing.

“I don’t think it’s going to make any difference,” Bacon said. “Parents are going to pay for it in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturdays.”

In-house suspensions are given automatically for issues such as students caught smoking inside or outside Portsmouth High School, and students are not allowed to make up class work for the missed day. This proposal, according to Steele, would make up for that missed class time.

“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.”

According to Steele, smoking is not the only disciplinary issue at the school, but it is the worst.

“I just want to keep students from smoking in the high school bathrooms,” Steele said. “There are other problems, but smoking is by far the biggest one.”

Students aren’t totally convinced this policy is justified in order to reduce the number of students smoking at school. Five high school students attended the meeting, and spoke against the issue. Lisa Gallagher, a senior, was one of the students who disagreed with the policy.

“I don’t like this idea,” Gallagher said. “I think it’s just being done to make life easier for the faculty, so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week.”

The board voted 5-3, with one member abstaining, on the issue. The discussion was tabled until its next meeting on March 7. Steele was instructed to return with figures on in-school suspensions so far this year.