Teacher Beats Student

[Gem]

Contumacious Wrote:

Nevertheless, it provides you with steady gainful employment.

What exactly is your point? That because I am gainfully employed as a public school teacher I am not allowed to discuss the problems I currently see in that system? Is that the way it works in your world - that if you have a job you aren't allowed to try to make it better? Work more efficiently? More accurately achieve its goal? You just have to say, "Thank GOD I have this job." And take it as it is?

Sorry...I disagree. I love teaching. I value and respect my profession. But I don't enjoy the public schools failing...and they are, just like many businesses nowadays. But rather than simply asking for a government bailout...I don't think the public schools need more money. I think we need to take a good look at what is happening in these institutions of learning and FIX them. My post in this thread was to discuss some of those problems and how the "fix" for all of them is NOT more testing, firing all the teachers, etc. For some of these problems...I think we're going to have to say to some teachers, some kids and their parents - Aut dosce, aut disce, aut discede.

 

[Samson]

WillowTree Wrote:

Fail them all.

Ah, see, this is a perfect example of what I am talking about. In the real world, if your employee refused to do his/her work...you could fire them.

In the public school system, common sense no longer prevails. I am not allowed to give students a grade lower than a 60% for the first 2 marking periods - regardless of whether they do all their work or nothing at all. After that I can fail most students (some Special Education students are not allowed to fail, regardless of what they do), but if too many begin to fail the administration steps in to find out what the teacher is doing wrong.

How do you keep your sanity?

Only 2 days until the weekend.....

Only 2 weeks until summer......

Only 2 weeks until Fall Break....

Only 2 weeks until Winter Break....

Only 2 weeks unitl Spring Break.

 

[bodecea]

Contumacious Wrote:

Nevertheless, it provides you with steady gainful employment.

What exactly is your point? That because I am gainfully employed as a public school teacher I am not allowed to discuss the problems I currently see in that system? Is that the way it works in your world - that if you have a job you aren't allowed to try to make it better? Work more efficiently? More accurately achieve its goal? You just have to say, "Thank GOD I have this job." And take it as it is?

Sorry...I disagree. I love teaching. I value and respect my profession. But I don't enjoy the public schools failing...and they are, just like many businesses nowadays. But rather than simply asking for a government bailout...I don't think the public schools need more money. I think we need to take a good look at what is happening in these institutions of learning and FIX them. My post in this thread was to discuss some of those problems and how the "fix" for all of them is NOT more testing, firing all the teachers, etc. For some of these problems...I think we're going to have to say to some teachers, some kids and their parents - Aut dosce, aut disce, aut discede.

I agree...schools don't need more money, they need the choice that private schools have. The choice to kick kids out who are disruptive and have no desire to learn. The choice to make sure parents are involved as private schools do...and if parents are not supportive, kick the student out. I have teacher friends who say they have turned into baby sitters for more and more of their students...and those who want to learn can't because the teacher spends more and more time in controlling those who. don't. want. to. learn. This is not a money issue...this is a fine tuning issue.

 

[xsited1]

Contumacious Wrote:

Nevertheless, it provides you with steady gainful employment.

What exactly is your point? That because I am gainfully employed as a public school teacher I am not allowed to discuss the problems I currently see in that system? Is that the way it works in your world - that if you have a job you aren't allowed to try to make it better? Work more efficiently? More accurately achieve its goal? You just have to say, "Thank GOD I have this job." And take it as it is?

Sorry...I disagree. I love teaching. I value and respect my profession. But I don't enjoy the public schools failing...and they are, just like many businesses nowadays. But rather than simply asking for a government bailout...I don't think the public schools need more money. I think we need to take a good look at what is happening in these institutions of learning and FIX them. My post in this thread was to discuss some of those problems and how the "fix" for all of them is NOT more testing, firing all the teachers, etc. For some of these problems...I think we're going to have to say to some teachers, some kids and their parents - Aut dosce, aut disce, aut discede.

I agree...schools don't need more money, they need the choice that private schools have. The choice to kick kids out who are disruptive and have no desire to learn. The choice to make sure parents are involved as private schools do...and if parents are not supportive, kick the student out. I have teacher friends who say they have turned into baby sitters for more and more of their students...and those who want to learn can't because the teacher spends more and more time in controlling those who. don't. want. to. learn. This is not a money issue...this is a fine tuning issue.

Well said. I just tried to give you a positive rep, but I've given out too much in the past 24 hours. I'll be back...

 

[Samson]

Contumacious Wrote:

Nevertheless, it provides you with steady gainful employment.

What exactly is your point? That because I am gainfully employed as a public school teacher I am not allowed to discuss the problems I currently see in that system? Is that the way it works in your world - that if you have a job you aren't allowed to try to make it better? Work more efficiently? More accurately achieve its goal? You just have to say, "Thank GOD I have this job." And take it as it is?

Sorry...I disagree. I love teaching. I value and respect my profession. But I don't enjoy the public schools failing...and they are, just like many businesses nowadays. But rather than simply asking for a government bailout...I don't think the public schools need more money. I think we need to take a good look at what is happening in these institutions of learning and FIX them. My post in this thread was to discuss some of those problems and how the "fix" for all of them is NOT more testing, firing all the teachers, etc. For some of these problems...I think we're going to have to say to some teachers, some kids and their parents - Aut dosce, aut disce, aut discede.

I agree...schools don't need more money, they need the choice that private schools have. The choice to kick kids out who are disruptive and have no desire to learn. The choice to make sure parents are involved as private schools do...and if parents are not supportive, kick the student out. I have teacher friends who say they have turned into baby sitters for more and more of their students...and those who want to learn can't because the teacher spends more and more time in controlling those who. don't. want. to. learn. This is not a money issue...this is a fine tuning issue.

This is essentially what schools do now, except it takes almost a decade. The problem is, that since juveniles change attitudes very quickly (compared to adults) you cannot identify a kid "who is disruptive and has no desire to learn."

In fact, this is why we have "Junior High"....to deal with a human age group whose attitude changes on a weekly basis.

Anyway, I'd agree though, that a certain standard should be met by the time a kid is 14, and at this point they have the OPTION of going to Public Highschool to learn a trade, staying at home and watching cartoons, working in a cotton field, or attending college/college prep.

The important point is that after 14, public schooling in no longer compulsitory.

 

[Oscar Wao]

No - somewhere in the US. It was a public school.

Texas. Didn't catch what city though.

Shocking.

 

[Samson]

No - somewhere in the US. It was a public school.

Texas. Didn't catch what city though.

Shocking.

Northern part of Houston within, although not part of, the Klein ISD.

Its very close to a pool-hall I used to frequent (Barney's Billiards, corner of FM 1960 and I 45) where the waitresses would wear their t-shirts tied off and go braless.

 

[AquaAthena]

Texas. Didn't catch what city though.

The kid wasn't wearing a Mexican flag shirt was he? If he was, I know some posters who would support the beating.

Naw. The way the mom explained it, the kids were all kind of dancing around (to some music?) in the classroom with the teacher out of the room. She spied him in some sort of altercation with a female student through the window, and maybe thought he was threatening another kid. Upon approach, she reportedly blurted out something like "hey, you want to fight with a girl?...blah, blah, blah"... and then balled up her fists in a fighting stance and attacked the kid.

You could see that the bony part of her forearm had connected with his head at one point while she had him down on the floor, swinging repeatedly at his head while he tried to duck and cover.

She needs to do some jail-time. This didn't appear anything like a scuffle where a teach might accidentally land a punch while breaking up a fight. She went after that kid.

I hope she gets the maximum of ten years for this brutal beating. She was recently charged with criminal mischief for slashing someone's car tires also.

 

[AquaAthena]

The kid wasn't wearing a Mexican flag shirt was he? If he was, I know some posters who would support the beating.

Naw. The way the mom explained it, the kids were all kind of dancing around (to some music?) in the classroom with the teacher out of the room. She spied him in some sort of altercation with a female student through the window, and maybe thought he was threatening another kid. Upon approach, she reportedly blurted out something like "hey, you want to fight with a girl?...blah, blah, blah"... and then balled up her fists in a fighting stance and attacked the kid.

You could see that the bony part of her forearm had connected with his head at one point while she had him down on the floor, swinging repeatedly at his head while he tried to duck and cover.

She needs to do some jail-time. This didn't appear anything like a scuffle where a teach might accidentally land a punch while breaking up a fight. She went after that kid.

I hope she gets the maximum of ten years for this brutal beating. She was recently charged with criminal mischief for slashing someone's car tires also.

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Davis has since been fired for beating up the student a loophole allowed her to teach in the first place. Davis does not have a teacher's certificate, but state law does not require one for certain charter school teachers.

Isaiah Reagin's mother has a message for other parents.

"Check out the schools before you send them, because you never know what's gonna' happen in the....."


More: Police: Teacher Who Beat Student Also Had Criminal Record | WUSA9.com | Washington, DC |

 

[Father Time]

The kid wasn't wearing a Mexican flag shirt was he? If he was, I know some posters who would support the beating.

Naw. The way the mom explained it, the kids were all kind of dancing around (to some music?) in the classroom with the teacher out of the room. She spied him in some sort of altercation with a female student through the window, and maybe thought he was threatening another kid. Upon approach, she reportedly blurted out something like "hey, you want to fight with a girl?...blah, blah, blah"... and then balled up her fists in a fighting stance and attacked the kid.

You could see that the bony part of her forearm had connected with his head at one point while she had him down on the floor, swinging repeatedly at his head while he tried to duck and cover.

She needs to do some jail-time. This didn't appear anything like a scuffle where a teach might accidentally land a punch while breaking up a fight. She went after that kid.

I hope she gets the maximum of ten years for this brutal beating. She was recently charged with criminal mischief for slashing someone's car tires also.

Where are you getting this from?

I wouldn't put it past her but...

Anyway 10 years doesn't seem too cruel and if she's slashed someone's tires before then she clearly isn't a case of 'I just lost it one day'.

 

[Samson]

Isaiah Reagin's mother has a message for other parents.

"Check out the schools before you send them, because you never know what's gonna' happen in the....."


More: Police: Teacher Who Beat Student Also Had Criminal Record | WUSA9.com | Washington, DC |

Yeah, parents really should know where their kids are 8 hours a day during weekdays, and what they're doing there.

Novel Concept.

 

[caela]

First off, if anyone ever lays a finger on my child for any reason other than either self-defense or because it was necessary to protect another student, they had damned well better pray the cops get a hold of them before I do.

No matter what this woman thought this kids might be about to do she had no cause to wail on him like she did. If she thought the female student was in imminent danger then she would have been justified in restraining him in some manner but not in very deliberately beating a cowering student about the head and shoulders with a closed fist.

That being said I agree with the people who have said we have, effectively, neutered our teachers. They have no authority in their own classrooms and the students know it. There is no real incentive for them to behave in the classrooms, particularly if they are from low-income areas and don't believe they will ever get out of them.

A good chunk of the blame falls on parents as well. If they don't value a child's education, and show they value it by helping with homework or at the very least showing an interest in what the child is learning; then why should the child find any value in it?

I'm amazed by anyone that can be motivated enough, and caring enough to walk into a school day after day and be a teacher. I couldn't do it and I know it.

I like Samson's idea of tracking them and placing them appropriately. Give students that show an aptitude and honest interest in continued education the right to move on to high school, the rest, test them for their aptitudes and send them to an appropriate trade school or cut them loose and let them work at McDonald's for the rest of their lives or until they learn that working at McDonald's isn't what they want and they go back to adult ed classes on their own.

 

[Father Time]

I don't think we've neutered teachers in fact I think schools are getting way too draconian especially with the zero tolerance BS they have.

 

[caela]

I don't think we've neutered teachers in fact I think schools are getting way too draconian especially with the zero tolerance BS they have.

What other options do they really have? And that's not teachers that's the school administrations playing CYA. A teacher though has no power in their own classroom...they can try and tell a child to leave the room but really if the kid refuses there's not a damned thing they can do about it because if they try to force the kid out they are charged with assault.

 

[Gem]

Father Time Wrote:

I don't think we've neutered teachers in fact I think schools are getting way too draconian especially with the zero tolerance BS they have.

I'm glad you posted this. This is exactly what I am talking about when I say that intelligent people who aren't working in the public education environment think that they understand it...but they don't.

I don't mean that as an insult...I mean to say that the public school system as a whole is a horse of an entirely different color than most people think...which leads to misunderstandings like yours above.

Completely contrary to what you have written, zero tolerance policies are a perfect example of neutered teachers and administrators!

Most zero-tolerance policies have come about because school districts have faced lawsuits because they have tried to use common sense when imposing discipline. Left with no other choice but to implement "one-size fits all" policies or face legal action...districts are left with little choice but to implement Zero Tolerance policies.

Every teacher knows that a child who punches another child in the face just because deserves a harsher punishment than the child who punches someone in the face AFTER being punched himself. But because of parents complaining and threatening legal action...most schools I know of punish both the attacker and the defender equally in most cases.

If parents would give school districts back the ability to say to a parent, "Your child is out for 3 days because he picked a fight. Your child is back in class with an ice-pack on his hand because he defended himself against a bully. Have a nice day." Then you are going to have districts trying desperately to protect themselves from lawsuits and crazy helicopter parents with these ridiculous policies.

 

[Father Time]

You may have something there when my middle school threatened me with a trumped up zero tolerance charge all my mother had to do was threaten to get a lawyer.