These sentiments from two prominent Rhode Island progressives are worth noting:

“Harmful practices.”  “Punish children.”  They’re talking about demerits for things like being late or unprepared for class.

Notice that they don’t care whether these policies could help some children.  Either in their arrogance they think they know better or in their malice they want to cultivate a generation that has no self-control.  A healthy society would keep people like Sanchez and Bell as far as possible from the ability to set policies related to children.