In Canada, is it legal to send a 5 year old child to detention for 2 hours with nothing to eat or drink?

Question

In Canada, is it legal to send a 5 year old child to detention for 2 hours with nothing to eat or drink?

Answer 1

Are you suggesting that it's unnatural/inhumane for a 5 year old child to go 2 hours without food or drink?

Afterall, what did the child do to get there? Detention isn't really a punishment if it happens during 'snack time', is it?

Answer 2

Who is telling you he had nothing to eat or drink? The child? Or an adult who has come forward with this information?

The thing about kids starting out in school, they are supposed to know how to listen and behave already. It is NOT the teachers job to instill basic behavior expectations, but far too often darling little 5 year olds show up at school who arent even toilet trained - never mind having a grip on other expectations of acceptable behavior -

You can see how unfair that is to a child, to be sent to dentention, to be embarassed in front of his/her peers because of being singled out by unacceptable behavior -

Things his parents should have already instilled in the child - NOT the teacher, the parent(s).  Lax parenting does a child no good - and you dont say what he did to be sent to dentention -

I dont know any teacher who sends a child to detention without good reason, and the length of time depends on how bad the behavior was --

I am guessing an assault on another child of some kind - spitting? Biting? Wacking someone over the head with a toy?

Answer 3

Call social services  or child protection if concerned . But every kid needs to learn right from wrong

Answer 4

yes

Answer 5

When I was growing up, my father had the best method to punish me. You take away something that the child wants or loves.

Examples:

- child misbehaves at home...no TV for a day.

- did not put their toys away...no bike for a week.

- did not eat their supper, reheat it and serve it to them the next day.

There was never any slapping or spanking after the age of reason, around 3 years old. Even before that, it was just enough to know you did something wrong, but never any permanent physical or mental scars.

As for sending a 5 yr old to detention, that is fine with me, but be careful how it is used. Make sure you are doing it for a valid reason (For example, you cannot punish a child for saying bad words or cursing when one or both of the parents are using that same word in the household...You must lead by example), and then don't send them to the room where they have all their toys, or a TV. How much of a punishment is it to be forced to go to your room when that is where they play all day anyhow.

And like another person mentioned, detention for 2 hrs is not any more effective to a 5 yr old than doing it for 20-30 minutes. They get the idea, and you can tell them that it will be longer for the next punishment, etc.

Answer 6

It is not illegal, but seems excessive to me

A five year old doesn't have a long attention span, 15 minutes would accomplish the same result.