Recently on the main chatboard,
http://teachers.net/chatboard, a teacher
informed us of a teacher in Iowa who quit
because of one student. I went to the
article and was dismayed that this is yet
another case of lack of support for
educators. Not only by the administration,
but also by the parents. Parents were quoted
in the article as saying they have met and
are upset over the lack of support for this
teacher. The problem is that they have met
AFTERWARDS. Where were they BEFORE?

Parents were aware of the problem. There is
no doubt that they probably even discussed
the problem with the teacher at some point.
The parents should have gone to
administration prior to this situation
getting to the point that a teacher quit.
Quoted from the article; "Parents said on
numerous occasions that the boy verbally and
physically abused other children..." There
is NO excuse not only for the lack of
support from administration, but also for
the lack of support from the parents.

The media and society often questions why
there is violence in school. One major
problem is that there are not intervention
strategies in place at an early age. The
child in question is approximately eight to
nine years of age, a fourth grader. Often we
hear, "They will grow out of it" or "He has
so many problems at home." While I agree
that educators must take home environments
in consideration when dealing with their
students, I feel that once a student begins
disrupting the learning of others and
becomes "verbally and physically abusive"
to others, then that child needs to be
removed.

Furthermore, KUDOS to this teacher.
Educators must understand they DO NOT have
to put up with this in the classroom. We do
not go into the classroom to teach our
hearts out to have one child disrupt the
learning of so many others. Educators must
begin standing up for the rights of the
other students in their class. They must
begin standing up for their own rights as a
teacher.

Until society and parents begin to
understand that it takes everyone to educate
the child, then we will continue to see
these problems. Until parents begin to back
educators when problems arise in the
classroom, we will continue to see problems.
I am not taking the blame off of the
administration because clearly they were
wrong in not backing the teacher, however
that does not give permission for the
parents to not do a thing about it. It is
amazing how administration will listen to a
group of parents and will correct a problem
quicker than they will when a teacher
complains.

The teacher was quoted as saying that
she,"...no longer wants to compromise
student education and her personal integrity
..." GOOD FOR HER!

I urge ALL educators to send a copy of this
article to their legislators with their
opinions of the state of education and the
lack of support we have in the classrooms.
Fortunately, I have a great administration
who supports us when we have students that
are illegally depriving other students of
their right to an education. I will still be
writing my letters tonight in support of all
those educators who do not have that
support.

eimmik

article: The Tribune www.amestrib.com
Sawyer Teacher Takes Leave Due To Disruptive
Student

eimmik, eimmik@teachers.net,
12/18/00

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