First off, let me start by saying that I have never had one Saturday detention in all of my high school career. I am a senior, admitted to Florida State University, and it’s my second to last week of school. I have always been very involved in and outside of school, creating our grade’s spirit night videos, being a part of a traveling allstar cheerleading team, modeling for a cheerleading uniform company, and more. On top of all of that, I’ve encountered many obstacles in relation to those different activities, including a severe concussion from tumbling and getting very sick while traveling for a cheer competition.  As a result, I have accumulated many absences and tardies, but was still able to maintain a very good GPA.

About a week ago, I was called down to my vice principal and told that I was being given a Saturday detention for “accumulating eight tardies.” I was extremely taken aback by this, considering the fact that many of the times I was late to school, I had a doctor’s note in hand. I told my vice principal this, and she said that it doesn’t matter if the lates are excused or unexcused.

“It’s a new rule,” she told me.

Although I did not exactly see her point, considering the fact that at least I even showed up to school on those days, I decided to not argue it and just take the punishment.

Saturday came along and I arrived to the school promptly at 8:55 a.m. for my 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. detention. We met in the main entrance with two teachers, a male and a female, checking us in. There was probably 20 of us there. When it finally turned 9 o’clock we began to walk to our designated classroom. When we were just about leaving the main entrance foyer at 9:02 a.m., one of the students noticed a boy making his way towards the door and said, “Someone’s coming!” The female teacher turned around as she was still walking, did not see anyone, and continued making her way further from the door with the rest of the students. The student was subsequently locked out. That’s one student down.

We finally arrive to our classroom and we’re not allowed to enter the room until she calls our name. The teachers were spreading out the desks and putting us in alphabetical order when the female teacher calls the name of a boy in my grade who came with no backpack and asks him, “Where’s your backpack?” He then tells her that he didn’t bring one. “You have to leave then. You need to be doing 3 hours of continuous work in there,” she tells him. He then left. That student actually took the time to voluntarily wake up early on a Saturday morning and arrive on time to his three hour detention just to be told to leave. That’s another student down.

I’m finally seated in my assigned seat at the front of the room, and this is where it gets crazy. The female teacher is going over all of the rules that includes no leaving the room (you’re basically screwed if you have to pee), no talking, no eating, no phones, no headphones, and the list just kept going on and on. Any infraction of these rules would result in the student being asked to leave and having to then do two days of in school suspension on top of making up another Saturday detention. I then noticed the male teacher told one of the students to take her water bottle off of her desk. This made me wonder… Am I not allowed to drink water or something?

After finishing the long list of rules, the teachers still had not mentioned anything about water. So, I raised my hand and asked, “We’re allowed to drink water, right?”

“No,” was the response.

“Wait, I’m supposed to sit here for 3 hours without drinking any water?” I asked.

“I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them,” the female teacher said. Mind you, I barely had any breakfast, had a sore throat, and was already having anxiety over the fact that I only brought one water bottle. Now I’m being told I can’t even drink it?

“Isn’t that like a health thing? We need water,” I said.

“If it was a health thing then the office should have known,” she replied.

What….? I was not made aware of the fact that the school office would have had to grant me permission to drink water.

“Isn’t it just a basic human right to be able to drink water as your body needs it?” I said.

“Hey, if you keep questioning it, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” the male teacher said. It was at this point that the female teacher decided to take action.

“I have been working in this school district for 15 years! I do not make the rules, I just enforce them! If you don’t like them, you can leave and we’ll take it up with your VP on Monday,” she said.

“Fine, I will,” I said.

I stood up, gave the male teacher my name, and left. Another student stood up from her seat, said that was ridiculous and followed me out. That’s four students down within the first ten minutes of detention.

I apologized to the male teacher and said I really did not mean to make a scene but I genuinely did not feel comfortable sitting that long without being able to drink water. There was going to be a five minute break at 10:30 where we would’ve been able to eat a snack and drink water, but that was still an hour and a half away. Additionally, did they expect me to just chug a water bottle during that break, and then have to hold in my urine during the rest of detention? I’m almost certain prisoners have more rights than the students who attend Saturday detention.

So, that’s the story of how I was thrown out of my first ever Saturday detention of my second to last week of my high school career. I am still unaware of the disciplinary measures that are going to be taken against me, but I honestly believe that I do not deserve one. I went to serve my time and was asked to leave because I refused to abide by the no-water rule. My vice principal told me that if I refuse to make up the time, then they will hold my diploma and I will not be able to graduate.

I think many lessons can be learned from this experience. One of those being that teachers and students should not follow rules so blindly. If the teacher had just allowed me to drink my water in the first place, this whole thing would have never happened.

To those who are ever in a similar position and being denied a basic right due to a rule – stand up and fight.

Now that it has been five days since the incident, I have had some time to reflect. Originally, my anger was directed towards the proctors for following such absurd rules, but I realize now that it is the rules itself and the creators of those rules that are to blame. I have absolutely nothing against the two teachers who ran the detention, they were simply doing their jobs. However, the no-water policy and similar inhumane rights that are withheld during Saturday detention must be brought to the attention of those who created them.