Your 4^th period teacher constantly threatens your poorly behaved classmates with CSI, the room for discipline correction, but have you ever wondered what happens once you’re there?

So why are students sent there?

At Miami High, students are sent to CSI for several reasons. “Most kids are here for interrupting, or being disrespectful to their teachers,” said Miami High’s assistant principal in charge of discipline correction, Mr. Arscott. “But mostly for interrupting the class.”

CSI serves as a place for students to do their work and for them to not interrupt their classmates’ learning. “It’s not fair for one student’s childish behavior to disrupt the whole class,” said Mr. Arscott. “Sometimes those disruptive students need a quiet place to meditate about their behaviors, or see life from another perspective that’s not only about themselves.”

And what do you do there?

Although used primarily as a measure of discipline, CSI helps students in other ways. “We check their credits and make sure they are not missing any or if their GPA is too low,” said CSI instructor Mr. Miranda. “Sometimes students aren’t aware they are missing requirements to graduate.”

Students can learn while being in CSI too. “We have computers in the room,” said Mr. Arscott. “Students get to work on Reading Plus, Edgenuity or any assessments they need computer access for. “

Freshman Bryan Pavon says in his first time in CSI he learned more than school lessons. “I learned discipline, that I need to get to school on time, and to strive to do better in life,” he said. “You fall behind when you’re in CSI because you’re not in the classroom learning. It’s not the same learning experience.”

Freshman Daniela Hernandez learned something too. “I skipped my English class because it’s boring, but I’ve learned my lesson. I’m not going to skip again,” she said. “I don’t like being here.”

This seems to confirm teachers’ belief that CSI helps correct students’ poor behavior. “I send students to CSI when they skip my class,” said biology teacher Mr. Perez. “and when they do, usually they come back clueless about what’s going on. I need to set an example for other students to not skip. If I just let them skip without consequences, they won’t learn their lesson.”

But what if CSI doesn’t work?

However, CSI might not work for all kids. “Catching them at Burger King, or any other place when they should be in class teaches them a lesson, but if it doesn’t, then we have other measures,” said Mr. Arscott. “We have Motivational Coaches USA seeing the kids who get in trouble very often, and also we have teacher-parent conferences because sometimes parents are uninformed about the behavior of their kids.”

But, even more severe measures are taken when there’s no improvement in a student’s behavior.  “If you’re bleeding nonstop at the nurse, they won’t give you a band aid, because then you keep bleeding. They transfer you to a surgeon whose specialty will be to stitch you up. They don’t just let you bleed until you die because that’s not their specialty,” said Mr. Arscott. “Similarly, we transfer students with severe behavior problems to other schools that may be a better fit for them, like Green Springs High School. We don’t just ‘kick them out’.”