The biggest imperative as far as school management was concerned was to avoid parents making complaints. Good kids rarely told their parents if they were unfairly punished as part of a group, and even if they did, because good kids normally have good parents, they were unlikely to complain at the drop of a hat. Bad kids who perceived even the slightest trace of injustice, real or not, would be straight home complaining to parents who’d be straight up to the school to yell at the school for ‘picking on my Jake all the time.’
I like to think I was a good kid with good parents when I was at school. I did not get into trouble of my own making very often.