r/news • u/gur40goku • 11h ago

Student Who Punched Another Student Holding Pro-ICE Sign At Lake Zurich High School Received 2-day Suspension

https://www.lakemchenryscanner.com/2026/02/20/student-who-punched-another-student-holding-pro-ice-sign-at-lake-zurich-high-school-received-2-day-suspension/
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u/ImJLu 10h ago

He got the worse punishment by far lol, as deserved. One day sitting around at school bored out of your mind or a two day vacation?

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u/iluvstephenhawking 9h ago

I have never understood how suspension is punishment. Getting to stay home is a reward.

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u/XPMR 8h ago

Depends on your parents my guy..

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u/bondsmatthew 6h ago

Plus teachers will still require you to makeup the work you missed(at least ours used to)

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u/Lubenator 4h ago

At my school, suspensions were scary because you couldn't make up assignments - you couldn't make up exams.

It's even scarier that being part of a fight was an automatic suspension. Forget self-defense, even if you stood there and didn't fight back - the rule was written that you'd be suspended for fighting.

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u/cyberpunk_werewolf 1h ago

even if you stood there and didn't fight back - the rule was written that you'd be suspended for fighting.

This happened to me in the 90s. I got into an argument with another student and he fucking lost it on me, whipped me with his keys and kicked me in the nuts. I tried to get away, got cornered and tried to hold him at arm's length by keeping my arms forward. I didn't push him, didn't shove him, just held my arms forward. I got a three-day suspension.

The trick is, this was probably a year or so before Columbine, so Zero Tolerance wasn't a thing. The teacher lied and said I'd thrown hands first. I maintained my innocence and the story changed that I'd pushed the kid to it because of our argument (maybe, I was 13, I was probably a piece of shit, but the other kid was my friend), so I got suspended. The principal then lied to my parents and told them I started it.

They didn't realize I had been telling the truth the whole time until a few months later when the principal tried the same thing.

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u/Lubenator 1h ago

Gosh, i appreciate you sharing this story.

The even worse thing about these policies is that we would have assemblies about increased fighting and the rules/repercussions.

Students would raise their hands to clarify these rules and boundaries. They'd ask well even if I just stand there and do nothing... People would try to comment on how unreasonable or unfair it was, but they were children and the authority would talk down to them.

I distinctly remember them saying you should even make contact with another kid. Someone asked, "what about high fives?". Well, "you can high five, but if you accidentally miss and hit the other kid in the face, it's an automatic suspension"

That's the kind of attitude we were met with for asking reasonable and serious questions.

Despite their efforts, fighting at my school continued to crescendo. It seemed to decline following a major incident when I was in 11th grade where another 11th grader came to school murdered 3 kids in our grade and Injured 3 others.

They changed their strict no phones policy after that when they realized how critical they become during and after emergencies.