Thursday, April 05, 2007

Teacher Accused Of Watching Students Fight

A Central Florida substitute middle school teacher is being accused of watching two students fight in a classroom and not doing anything to break it up.

Excuse me!
What should she do?
Should she get punched in the face?
Break bones?
Does she have proper training to break up fights?
Have YOU ever tried to break up a girl fight? It is much more dangerous than a boy fight.
Why do so few people have a clue?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scorpion says---
The accusation is incredible.Being
subjected to the treatment that a sustitute teacher takes on a daily basis is punishment enough. I have often said that I could write a book on my experiences being a substitute teacher. Wonder who would believe these situations. Plus, my horror stories are from almost forty years ago-- I can only
imagine things sub teachers put up with in today's wonderful schools.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, but I completely disagree.

It's the adult's JOB in that situation to break up the fight...whether they get punched in the face or not.

A teacher needs to do whatever they can to break up a fight, including summoning aid from other teachers. Otherwise, the strong rule the school not the teachers. What lesson do the students learn – the participants as well as the onlookers - when a symbol of authority complete fails to keep order?

I don't know where you went to school, but in any of the public schools I went to in Western New York there would of been six teachers in that room in under 30 seconds and the troublemakers would have been the ones who were afraid...NOT the teacher or the other students.

Also, according to the story you link to the teacher was a man not a woman and the fight was eventually broken up by another teacher.

Finally, is it your argument that they should just be left to fight until they exhaust themselves? Or until the entire class joins in?

still Unreal... said...

While i may agree with elliot that maybe she should have summoned aid, i also believe that unless you've walked in the shoes.....
Game is right. Girl fights are exponentially worse than guy fights.
Substitute teaching HAS to be one of the suckiest jobs. You dont know the "kids" or what they are capable of...male or female.
I can remember in jr. high, one student throwing a wadded up piece of paper at the sub and hitting her in the side of the face as she looked out the window. what was she supposed to do? everyone knew who threw it. some skinny little (little by my standard is TINY. i'm short) punk who was a known gang-banger and was liable to pull a gun at any time.
we ALL could have pummelled the hell out of him...but at what cost?

The Game said...

Security is trained to break up the fight...
It is NOT the job of the teacher to break up a fight, period.
The rule of law and the control of the classroom only applies if the students decide or are taught at home that they are supposed to listen to the teacher. If the 30 kids in my first hour wanted to all get up and kick my ass, what would I do about it?
Also, say I break up a fight...and touch a girl in the wrong place, or injure one of them, then it is my fault because I do not have proper training.
Now, I do have proper training and at times I have broken up fights, I'm talking about the sub who is getting paid a hundred bucks to go through a living hell every day..

blamin said...

Can you imagine the outcry if a teacher actually laid hands on a student or students in an attempt to break up a fight? Now, imagine the teacher is white and the students are black = outcry X 10.

If parents refuse to raise their kids properly; only when teachers and principals are allowed to do what is necessary, will you see an improvement in our public schools.

Of course with hang wringing, limp wrist Liberals in charge, that will never happen, no matter the long term damage to society.

The Game said...

well done blamin

Jay Bullock said...

I agree with Game here. It is not my job to get punched in the face. My (and Game's) contract actually says that I should not put myself in danger of bodily harm--and if I do, and I get hurt, the district can deny me worker's comp because I went against the contract.

it is my job to do what I can to get people into the room who are trained and can restrain students. Standing and watching is as wrong as trying to get in the middle once the blows are flying.

I am lucky that in ten years I've had fewer fights in my room than I have fingers on one hand. Not that students haven't wanted to, but usually I can get one into the hallway and stall long enough for safety aides to deal with it.

Anonymous said...

A couple of things.

1.) I'm sorry you guys have to work in that environment.

2.) What the fuck? Security? No wonder I feel so old. In my high school, "Security" was any teacher that didn't like the way a student looked at them.

I understand that it isn't the teachers' faults that lawyers and shitty parents have created an environment where you can't physically plant a student's butt back in their seat. But I'm old-fashioned. I still hold doors open for women, I never argue with a cop during a traffic stop, and I think a kid should be terrified of getting on the wrong side of a teacher.

The Game said...

Elliot, I agree 10000000% with you...but I think you have figured out that school doesn't work the way it used to/should...
I broke up a few fights this year, and I worry for a few days that I see a lawyer in the office wanting to know why I touched someone the wrong way or why I broke someones arm or whatever...
So that is why I say what I say about the substitute...
Doing the right thing in todays society is not allowed much of the time because of lawyers and the PC world

Anonymous said...

I agree that lawyers and some shitty parents have created this "new" school environment. The actions of a few always hurt the many. And the earlier post of what had this teacher had been white and the girls black would have only exasperated the issue.

But teachers hold a protected status. You hit a teacher and there isn't any playing around...it is a felony. That is why if the teacher had announced that he are she is coming in and dared a 7th grade girl to hit him...it may have been different. The students understand a felony.

The system (led by the Jesse Jackson types and the attorneys) have taken the empowerment away from the teachers to be a position of authority in the classroom. They don't discipline on the spot anymore. It is a "discipline notice" and off to the principal they go. This is sold to the public as not to disrupt the classroom any further then necessary but the policy is more in place to address the fact we can't have teachers doing their own discipline as differences in the discipline approaches may be accused of racial bias later. This way the principal can make sure that all is right in the litigation world. So the public school districts are crumbling because of the Jesse Jackson types and the lawyers. Then it is all put back on the teachers.....

Everyone is now figuring out the "emperor has no clothes" and reacting to it. Good...but nothing will likely change. One change that should be made is not to suspend both girls. News and eyewitness reports indicated one "bully" type girl started it and had been trying to start a physical fight for some time. The other girl in the video looks to be trying to defend herself. They should EXPEL the bully for good and return the other girl to class if that is the case.

I digress here, but another public school failure is to never address the root cause of a problem. For instance, since a cell phone camera was used to “expose” this, the school’s answer will probably be to ban all phones with camera abilities. Cell phone cameras have sure brought more light and forced more accountability to things such as this that would have normally been glossed over. A more holistic instance is the mythology of dealing with these types of kids (bullies) is metal detectors and for the victim to turn the other cheek - report it. Then the victim has to endure even harsher ongoing treatment later. Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't the ultimate cause of past school shootings bullies? They finally took some depressed kids and drove them to being unstable with the school administrators saying kids will be kids and looking the other way. As stated in this forum and others, times have changed (weapons etc.) and that doesn’t (and didn’t back then to be candid) work anymore. Proactively deal with the bullies in a harsh and absolute manner and your teachers won't have to be faced with an instant decision to intervene.