The Wrong People Are Teaching Our Children
Ya know, you’re right. But I got another question. Why the fuck is a nine year old girl practically comatose at school? Is she narcoleptic? Something about this fish stinks. But that teacher being bitch slapped for three hours is not it. What a gold-plated asshole.
Posted by commander0
05/23/2005 at 04:39 PM
Naah, the teacher should go to jail for child abuse, just like any of us would if we did something that directly resulted in our child’s tailbone betting broken. Then after the teacher gets out, he/she can deal with the civil lawsuit, and get to pay my daughter’s hospital and rehab bills. Then he/she can try to get anoher job, because he/she sure as hell should lose her teaching liscence and not be able to get another one. If I can’t give my f’ing kid a spanking, then a schoolteacher sure as hell can’t do something to my kid that breaks bones without suffering the conequences..
I don’t think there is anything more painful in this world than to suffer vicarious pain for a child. I’ve been trying to write a story of my own experience as a young mother, but find I cannot. It is too painful, and as I write, I can feel my heart beating wildly at the remembrances this post has brought about. I can say, minimally, that I attended two parent/teacher conferences for my son where the teachers, assuming my son had told me about the ‘incidents’, explained in defensive detail to me what they had done to my son for punishment over these incidents. In both cases, my son had done nothing wrong. Rather, he had been picked at random to set an example for the rest of the class. Both punishments were gravely humiliating for him, one making him cry in front of the class.
As I listened, the psychic anquish my son must have felt overwhelmed me. The strangest thing happened to me: I did not get mad. Instead, a surreal prisoner aura came over me, and all I wanted was not to be hearing the words spoken by these teachers. I had to hold my hands to keep from putting them over my ears. Something deep inside me broke real bad as I realized I would have to live the rest of my life knowing what my son had gone through at the hands of these horrible people.
I said little and left both conferences in some kind of daze of pain. Both times I got to my car and wailed to God to make it stop. Can’t write anymore but to say that there is no worse agony than that which you suffer for your child. Shew, I cry now to think of it.
Posted by Phoenix
05/23/2005 at 05:28 PM
Am I the only one who thinks that something beyond the teacher is fucked up here? Teacher gone is a given. I’d merrily beat her if it was my kid. And when I say merrily, I mean just that, like Alex “Singin’ in the Rain” in A Clockwork Orange. But what the fuck is happening in this kid’s home? Maybe nothing untoward, but I sure wouldn’t stop asking questions at the school level.
Posted by commander0
05/23/2005 at 06:05 PM
When I was 11 Ihad just been pulled from special ed-my folks decision NOT the school’s. they would’ve kept me in there forever-and I was working as a bathroom monitor during some of the time one of my final staffings was going on.
As I sat there one of the teachers involved-this was during the school day-walked by and I asked about how the staffing was going.
Well this gem of a teacher told me that my father was “very angry with you”.
Since my father had started beating me on a regular basis by this time-I’m sure THAT teacher knew it-I spent the rest of the day in tears-terrified of what horrible punishment awaited me at home.It turned out that my father WAS angry-at the public school system-not at me-yet that teacher had NO problem causing an already scared child even more anguish.
It’s been 24 years and the incident STILL bothers me!
Posted by Annoying Little Twerp
05/23/2005 at 06:29 PM
Allan and Commander, My sentiments exactly - I love the “Singin’ in the Rain” imagery from “A Clockwork Orange.”
Mae’s boy, Reggie, 11, was geting bullied by 3 or 4 older kids after school repeatedly. Reg is a big boy - 5’3”, 130lbs, solid weight - and he fought as best he could. I finally told him that it would continue until he really hurt one of them. I told him to take the one who appeared to be the leader - the biggest one with the biggest mouth - and hurt him very badly, which I showed him how to do. Reg did it, and the others ran away. Still, the school called Mae in for a conference about Reg’s “aggressiveness.” Mae basically told them to get fucked, that if they weren’t going to do their job, Reg did not have to take getting ganged-up on and would continue to defend himself if it happened again.
To this day, those kids avoid him at all costs.
My first thought is there might have been a health issue with the child… could be something as simple as not getting enough rest in the previous day/week, or could be a virus of some kind that would pass in a few days, or a chronic problem that hadn’t been Dx’d yet such as asthma.
I’ve had similar problems, both as a child (passed out in kindergarden) and as an adult, and it turns out it’s because I’m allergic to perfumes. Some of them actually knock me out if I’m exposed for more than a few minutes, and don’t have my benadryl & inhaler handy. I literally can’t stay awake until the reaction passes.
Whatever the cause, the teacher was waaay out of line, and I’m with the parents on this one. The girl had a broken bone as a direct result of the teacher’s actions. Doesn’t that count as battery? Surely an “educated” educator could take a moment or two to think before acting.
(or am I expecting too much?)
Posted by quidni
05/23/2005 at 08:18 PM
05/23/2005 at 07:29 PM
