The jail cell-esque room coined IRC, or the Immediate Referral Center, reeks of claustrophobia and hopelessness, or at at least, that’s the aura it conveys to most students at BHS.

There’s a “bad kid” stigma attached to the action of sending a disruptive child to the IRC. But House Master Tom Bushy explained that the IRC is only a place for students to go if they’ve committed a “low level” offense in the classroom. The teacher handbook states that students should only be sent to the IRC for distracting behavior, such as “persistent talking or failing to follow instructions.”

But students and teachers alike are wondering, if this tactic of discipline is going to continue, is it necessary? English teacher Jennifer Brown said that she’s sent three students to the IRC in her seven years of teaching. She said that using the IRC as a disciplinary tool depends on the situation and, as a teacher, her personal preference is to avoid sending students to the IRC. But she also said, “Sometimes kids just need a safe place to be, they need it as a ‘timeout.’”

Junior Richard Moquin said that the IRC should absolutely be discontinued as a method of discipline. He shared that in his particular situation with a teacher who has repeatedly sent him to the IRC, getting asked to leave class for his disruptive behavior has only worsened a resentment towards the teacher.

“The IRC is not somewhere you should send kids, sitting down with them and having a conversation would be a better way to solve issues,” Moquin said. He reasoned that his trust “has to be earned, its not given.” For Moquin, being sent to the IRC repeatedly instead of working out problems, only worsens mutual teacher and student respect even more.

“Sometimes you’re just going to leave [the IRC] even more ticked off and take it out on the next teacher,” Moquin said.

Bushy said that he would advise teachers to use different teaching strategies, “to hook kids so that they aren’t engaging in inappropriate behavior.” He explained that the hope is that when students are sent to the IRC, they realize how much it “stinks.”

But that doesn’t happen for every student. Senior Paulo Goncalves said that he was sent to the IRC for talking in class. He said that IRC wasn’t effective at all for teaching him that what he did was disrespectful. “I’ll probably do it again after I found out it’s not that bad in here,” he said.

Bushy also said that every person who is sent to the IRC should receive a phone call home by the teacher who sent them. Neither Goncalves nor Moquin said they received a call home the day they were sent to the IRC. Moquin also said that of all the times he’s been sent, he’s never received a phone call home.

There’s debate among education scholars if sending a student out of the classroom for inappropriate and disruptive behavior is effective. Some argue that it breeds resentment and that it doesn’t teach a student anything about what they’ve done wrong. Others argue that an intervention center like the IRC isn’t meant to teach a student anything, its purpose is to merely get a disruptive child out of a classroom so the rest of the students can continue to learn.