Last week a group of parents heavily criticised prestigious Victorian private school Geelong Grammar for using isolation as a form of discipline during a year-long boarding school program. The disciplinary action was taken after a group of Year 9s snuck away to a nearby pub at night. As a result, some of the students were internally suspended for five days.
The Australian reported some of the students were also isolated for periods of time as part of this five-day internal suspension. This involved being alone for 30 minutes after morning tea, 1 hour and 10 minutes after lunch and 90 minutes after lessons. The students then reportedly remained alone in tents from 6.30pm until the next morning.
As the school noted in a statement:
It is essential that we can trust students to remain in their own Units overnight and violating this trust has serious implications for the wellbeing and safety of our community […] Our imperative is to create and maintain an environment where students are safe, feel safe and behave safely; this is critical to enabling wisdom.
The Australian then reported the school has also asked for “absolute discretion” from parents to “impose disciplinary measures”.
It follows reports the number of students receiving school suspensions across Victorian public schools increased to almost 30,000 from last year – about 150 a day.
Both incidents have raised questions around how schools discipline students.
So how should schools respond to serious forms of misbehaviour? And are there better ways schools can help teens get back on track than others?
Why are the teenage years so tricky?
Teenagers pushing boundaries and misbehaving is often seen as being due to defiance, poor judgement or bad parenting. But neuroscience and developmental psychology research tells a more complicated story.
The teenage brain is still developing. The prefrontal cortex – the part responsible for planning, self-control, and weighing up consequences – is one of the last brain regions to fully mature, often not until the mid-20s.
At the same time, the brain’s reward and emotion systems are highly active. This means teenagers are especially drawn to excitement, novelty and social rewards, while their ability to pause and think through consequences is still developing.
Prominent US adolescence psychologist Laurence Steinberg compares this to driving a powerful car with excellent acceleration but brakes that are still being built. This helps explain why teenagers are much more likely to engage in risky behaviours, particularly when they are with friends.
Early adolescence is also a time when young people are working out who they are, becoming more independent, and testing boundaries. This is a normal part of development rather than evidence that something has gone wrong.
Importantly, risk-taking itself is not the problem. Trying new things, making mistakes, and learning from them are all part of growing up. The goal should not be to eliminate risk-taking altogether — that is neither realistic nor desirable. Instead, we should focus on reducing the likelihood of serious harm while helping teenagers learn from their mistakes.
Responding to serious behaviour
Suspension and other forms of exclusion remain common disciplinary responses in schools, but research shows they are rarely the most effective.
In some situations, suspension may be necessary to protect the safety of students or staff, but the evidence suggests it should be a last resort rather than a routine response.
Extended periods of isolation or “time-out” are particularly concerning. While a brief, supervised break can sometimes help a young person calm down when emotions are high, there is little evidence that prolonged exclusion or isolation improves behaviour.
Instead, it can increase distress, damage relationships with trusted adults, and reduce opportunities for students to learn more appropriate ways of responding in similar situations.
The same is true of suspension. Students who are suspended are more likely to be suspended again, become disengaged from school, and leave education early. While these consequences are intended to change behaviour, they often take students away from learning the very skills they need to make better choices in the future.
What works better?
While schools need to respond to serious behaviour, evidence suggests the most effective long-term approach is not simply imposing consequences, but building protective factors that help young people make better decisions in the future.
One of the strongest protective factors is a trusting relationship with at least one safe adult. Teenagers who feel connected to parents, teachers or other supportive adults are more likely to seek help, talk about problems and make safer choices when faced with difficult situations.
A more effective response for an incident involving students sneaking off to a pub would combine appropriate consequences with opportunities for learning. For example, this might involve helping students understand the risks of their decisions, repairing any harm caused, rebuilding trust, and developing strategies for making safer choices in the future.
Behaviour as a skill
Schools can also reduce risky or disruptive behaviour through behaviour education, or explicitly teaching young people good decision-making skills. This includes emotional regulation, problem-solving, decision-making, and relationship skills, while providing regular opportunities to practise these skills and receive positive feedback.
In the classroom, this might involve teachers modelling how to disagree respectfully, role-playing how to respond to peer pressure, or positively acknowledging students when they pause, ask for help, or resolve conflict safely.
Like reading or maths, behaviour is treated as something that can be learned, practised and improved. Encouragingly, schools in Victoria using these approaches consistently report stronger relationships, lower rates of suspension, and improved learning environments. These approaches have been successfully implemented in schools serving students and families with high levels of social and economic disadvantage.
Should parents get a say?
Some families may baulk at the idea that schools should have “absolute discretion” about how they discipline students.
Research suggests parents should have a genuine voice in these decisions. When families and schools work together as partners, students tend to have better educational, behavioural and wellbeing outcomes than when decisions are made by either party alone.
If families and schools are working together, they are more likely to come up with a solution or way forward that best suits students and can work at both school and home.
Where appropriate, young people should also be involved in finding solutions. Adolescents are more likely to follow through with plans they have helped develop, and involving them helps build the decision-making and self-regulation skills schools are trying to teach.
The federal government also says schools should involve parents as genuine partners, not simply inform them once decisions have already been made.
Reducing chances of life-changing mistakes
Many teenagers test limits – that is a normal part of adolescence, not a failure of parents or schools.
Research suggests the best response is not simply stronger punishment, but stronger protective factors: trusted adult relationships, teaching positive behaviours, and opportunities for teenagers to practise making good decisions.
These approaches do not eliminate risk-taking or misbehaviour, but they reduce the likelihood that mistakes become life-changing events.
