Should The Geneva Convention Be Applied in Schools to End Collective Punishment?
It Depends on Your Definition of War.
An eleven year old girl recently made internet news when she declared collective punishment should not be used by her teacher as it violated The Geneva Convention.
The Daily Dot contended the girl was partially correct. From 11-year-old claims classroom punishment violates Geneva Convention—and she’s right (kind of):
The article continues:
But that doesn’t answer the question whether this unnamed teacher could be accused of a war crime. The answer is probably not, considering the school isn’t engaged in a war and likely isn’t located in an occupied territory.
Those two sentences deserve some discussion. If war is defined as a military conflict between states/nations which utilizes guns, bombs, planes, tanks, knives, warships, etc, then the school is not in a war as it is commonly understood and defined. If the definition of war is expanded and includes conflict beyond the traditional Should The Geneva Convention Be Applied in Schools to End Collective Punishment? – Missouri Education Watchdog: