I am going to puke! 

BTW Sieg Heil!

This is not surprising at all. Only being out of it for one year I can say this is exactly how public school is. I have seen teachers grab desks while students are sitting in them and slide them across the room in anger. For some teachers yelling and screaming is a daily thing. Teachers k-12 are power hungry psychos. My favorite was being told that I “have to do” something. I don’t “have to” do anything. A teacher would give me an assignment and tell me if I didn’t do it they would give me a detention, isn’t the grade ‘E’ I would receive punishment enough? I fought that one with a meeting between me, a counseler and the teacher which I won surprisingly.

Typical.  The authorities videotape us all the time (consent be damned) in places both public and private.  But let one of us videotape them misbehaving and suddenly they’re all on about “privacy” and “rights” and such.

At my high school we had a PE teacher who used to do stuff like that.  In 1974 he pushed me against some lockers because I walked through the cafeteria with a hat on (“Hey!  See that red, white, and blue thing over there!?“)  He was never disciplined to my knowledge even though many complaints were made.

It just occurred to me that he might have heard that I wasn’t standing during the pledge. Certainly justification for assaulting a kid half your size.

I for one can’t recall a single incident at my high school in which a students rights were truly respected. High school basically operates in the same way as a dictatorship, so it’s not surprising. When we did a “1984” project for my Social Justice class one student compared our school to the 1984 society, with the students as the proles. Frankly, I couldn’t agree more.

Above and beyond any issues involved, yanking a chair out from under a child is against the law.  How can they ignore this?

I guess I was just lucky in going to the schools I went to…

As Shana said, the school more seems worried about the students “invasion” of the teachers “privacy” (in a public place no less!) than by the fact that they have a teacher on their faculty who seems to routinely assault (that is the word I’d use) his students.

Not that I’m surprised. While at the high school I went to I never saw or heard of a student being attacked by a teacher, I know for a fact that the entire faculty turned a blind eye to the methods used by the dorm prefects in disciplining the younger students, and in some cases actively encouraged them. This caused a bit of a media storm when a student in the year above me sent a letter to the local paper, excerpts of which made it into the national press. I remember our year being warned not to say anything by any press who got onto the school grounds or who we met while on day leave in the nearby town.

Everything blew over, the shit continued. Had someone been able to do what these kid did and have it recorded however, many heads would doubtless have rolled.

There was this one teacher at my high school that yelled at the students constantly with just cause. My teacher never physically assaulted us or trampled on any rules, he was simply controlling jerks who didn’t want to be there.

This guy however, well, it’s hard to believe who is telling the truth. I wouldn’t trust the video as much as I trust the statements made by the school body.

I wouldn’t trust the video as much as I trust the statements made by the school body.

Wait, are you saying that you won’t believe your own eyes and choose to rely on the veracity of a school board circling the wagons against a major lawsuit to get at the truth? Are you prone to visual hallucinations? What you see in the video is an assault, pure and simple, and you cannot dismiss it because it happened to a minor at school instead of an adult at work. Would you make excuses for your boss if he knocked you to the floor for failing to genuflect whenever he mentioned the pope in your presence?

Anyhow, this comes as no surprise to anyone who remembers that Rumsfeld’s biggest concern when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke was that cell phones with cameras needed to be banned from secure facilities. Better that 1000 prisoners be raped, tortured, and murdered by the government than 1 embarrassing scandal come to light, heaven forfend. What can you expect when Republicans control the government if NOT a defend the guilty attitude?

Is the video going to be permissable as evidence against the teacher?

Lots of problems with the video.

One. It was staged and deliberately done, by the students….and a violation of the law.

They should lose the phone completely. Never get it back.

TWO, the student reportedly having his chair pulled out from under him? I doubt it. From the angle of the video view, it appears he was sitting atop the desk/stool….and from his body movement, there was no safety problem.

THREE, it wasn’t specified, but I wonder if the purportedly agrieved student wasn’t the one doing the whistling.

FOUR, As for his use of profanity, the school should have the student suspended for a week — for each profanity…That would come to at least three weeks. Also, have him lose all credits toward graduation during that period.
It seemed the teen was acting more like a spoiled petulant infant, rather than someone who narrowly escaped physical injury.

RE: Claiming the teacher should have been calling for assistance, there is a lot of information we don’t have — such as if they security responds quickly at the school; if the student (and his buds) have a continual history of disrupting the class and have not been punished by the administration…. and so many more questions.

ALSO….yes, ban all cell phones except for those belonging to the teachers…… Perhaps have a claim check system with a safe for the students to check them in when they come on campus. Perhaps have it where students lose all credits gained toward graduation that semester if they are caught on campus with cell phones.
Have it where they could earn back the credits by attending night school and night school only.

ONE BIG suggestion, let the teachers control their own video cameras and record the classes…. Just think of the parent claiming �? My Jonnie/Janey would never do that�?….and have the teacher able to show their perfect kid….doing everything from cheating to stealing …. to everything else … during a parent-teacher conference.

The best way to do it would be that if it was only allowable for the teacher to run or view. If there was any complaints, then that particular class could be viewed by the other teachers in their section.

BTW, all of the students involved in this little stunt should probably be banned from the school entirely…..they were not virgins when it came to class disruption….and the school/class would be better off without them. Let them go to a private or county remedial school — one that confiscates all cell phones.

That might leave the students in the class who actually would like to learn…

Does the teacher have some problems….? Yes…. but the best way to handle this is to remove those fools…even from the school if they are habitual miscreants.

Perhaps if they had to pay to get a diploma, they might actually pay attention in class enough to graduate with better than 3rd grade level skills…

In many ways, the video shows that many of the schools have the inmates running the asylums….
and students showing little if any “family values” like respect.

Right, so the teacher could turn it off when he wanted to yell?  Screw that.
And what’s with the anti-cell phone big brother bit?
Are you sure you aren’t that teacher?

give me a break if you think there isn’t more to this story than a group of web pages written by the same teenagers in question.  the video i say on the news shows the student knocking over his own chair when he stood up.  who said they were sitting quietly, when refusing to stand.  you only saw what a group of out of control teens wanted you to see.  when did it become wrong to treat a teacher with respect.  my kids have been taught to respect their teachers, if there is a problem to go to the principal or talk to us.  there has to be more to this story, but most people don’t want the truth.

What I find ironic about gnus53’s comment is that he/she repeatedly claims the video doesn’t give much to judge the teacher by yet he/she is perfectly willing to assume the kids are the assholes and is ready to specify all manner of draconian rules to try and force the respect said teacher is unable to earn on his own. Please specify which law the kids have violated? I’m not aware of any laws prohibiting secretly taping a teacher losing control in front of his class.

Bunyy, where I come from you have to earn your respect. It’s not given to you just because you’re in a position of authority. There were a lot of teachers I respected and admired growing up, but there were also several that demonstrated every reason for me to have absolutely no respect for them. The same is still true today. There are a number of people who have earned my respect and admiration, but easily as many who have demonstrated they’re not worthy of much more than contempt.

It is actually quite likely that some of the students are jerks, spawned from years of being spoon-fed their “self-esteem” whether they accomplished anything or not.  Then if the teacher is a jerk, you get a situation guaranteed to explode.

Videotaping classes to show parents their kids’ misbehavior is an entertaining idea, but I doubt most parents would change their behavior even if confronted with evidence.  Still, it’s worth a try.  If I were a teacher, I might say; “Since we’re videotaping you, feel free to videotape me.“ (At least they’d be paying attention… heh!)  A room with 35 people in it can hardly be called a private situation.

Cell phones in schools have many positives - family connections (people are busy and they have to manage complex days) safety (Columbine) and some reduction in the feeling of isolation that kids have in a needlessly authoritarian situation. (Kids are treated like prisoners, learning “citizenship” only as an abstraction like the disembodied math problems that prepare them for NCLB tests.)  And finally, keeping the authorities accountable with pictures and video. 

There’s hardly anything more ludicrous than demanding respect while acting disrespectfully.  The authorities shout “foul” when kids do it, but hide behind rules when they themselves do it.

One thig to keep in mind, and I still think that the teacher was out of line, is that the previous day they had a substitute teacher and they had made the sub’s life hell by shrinkwrapping a fellow student to his chair.

FWIW

Students’ provocation and supposed staging of the event, using of video phone and privacy of teacher are all IRRELEVANT as the question is focused on the actions of the teachers.

Examine the issue from the back. Does a teacher in any circumstance have the right to attack the student? The answer would be in the negative. Student’s action at best could only be used as mitigating factors with regards to the punishment given to the students.

Students actions are only relevant if one is answering the separate question relating to the discipline of the students. If one wants to expel the students for making it difficult for the substitute or shrinkwrapping a fellow student, by all means no one is stopping them. But that has no relevance to the actions of the teacher.

Separate the issues so as not to confuse the distinct incidents involved. Even a police officer who had arrested a murderer have no right to batter that person.

In my senior year in high school I took a psychology class and had a really great teacher, Mrs. Juchau.  Funny, smart, hip—in her late 50s, I’d guess.  One day she called in sick and we got a substitute.  I don’t know what this woman’s problem was, but she was on a hair trigger.  And no, we were not horrible or mean to her.  We respected Mrs. Juchau too much to make trouble for this substitute.  Anyway, this woman yelled and screamed at us the entire hour.  We didn’t even know what we were doing that was setting her off—we tried to ask her, but she just saw that as insubordination.  She said she was going to write a report to Mrs. Juchau about how awful we all were.

The next day Mrs. Juchau came back.  She walked in, gave us her usual cheery hello.  We just sat in silence, not knowing what was going to happen.  She saw a notebook on her desk.  “What’s this?“  She picked it up and read the first page.  The expression on her face would’ve been comical if we hadn’t been so scared.  She then chucked the thing into the trash, turned to us, and said, “Now, where did we leave off?“

So here’s to Mrs. Juchau!

—Joe

- Joe’s post about Mrs. Jachau -

Wonderful!  Beautiful.  How can we get more teachers like her?

It should be obvious that a town with a name like Brick Township that its not exactly going to be the smartest town in the nation. Darn that Middle (but not literally Middle) American again…

I’m going with Les on this one and any of you who don’t think the teacher acts like this all the time are idiots.

I’m with Les, too.

I have little experience with American schools; all I know is that those that went to both European and American schools felt cheated out of an education in the US. Having said that, there are asshole teachers everywhere. Let’s face it, there are in-duh-vi-duh-als in that profession that are quite unqualified.

In the German Gymnasium (a different kind of bench pressing than in a gymn) I went to, the teachers had to earn our respect. Some we feared, but we found ways to get even. I’m afraid we were vindictive bastards…

I haven’t viewed the video, but if the teacher lost his cool, then he must be disciplined. Whatever other issues the school has with the students are a seperate issue. It’s really a simple matter and if it isn’t, the school has a major problem.

ed. code is enforced different in CA (or at least in my district).  EVERYONE (students & teachers) are required to stand, (though not to recite) the pledge.  It doesn’t say anything about the kid refusing to stand as a political statement of belief.  That’s how I can tell a kid is going to have a bad day.  He doesn’t feel like doing anything, even standing up.

When a situation gets that bad, it’s usually an indication that both teacher & students are about as fucked up as they come.  Video clips may be true, but they never have context.

In my classroom, it’s a joke if the kids yell at me “Stop yelling!“ becuase I never do.  They also laugh at me when they get out of hand or refuse to work & I respond “I’m becoming frustrated & feel like I’m being rudely ignored.  I know I’m an authority figure, but I’m also a human being, & I’m trying to help you.“  Videotape of my Friday morning would never make the local news.  A student a foot taller than me told me to “shut up” & “fuck you” in my face because I said “I’ll have to separate you 2” (a girl he was discussing a break-up with).  Or the 200 times a day I’m interrupted mid-sentence with “This is boring/dumb”

I tell my students that it seems rebellion & freedom have become popular benevolent ends in & of themselves, with no other purpose, & that’s a pathetic waste of energy.  We rebel against bad authority & fight for freedom so we can do something valuable!

As for you complaining about teachers, I had my share of half-witted basket cases.  But for once, consider, 35 people in a room for an hour, 6 different times with barely a 20 minute lunch before you have to answer to your boss & a few parents asking why you didn’t notice some slight slacking or unhappiness in one of the 210 kids you saw all day.  Of course it’d be great if we could have one class size of 15 & each teacher had only 2-3 classes, but that’s not the way it is.  I’ve reprimanded or asked what a student was doing when s/he was doing nothing truly troublesome. But for each of those, I don’t notice a kid wandering out of his/her seat to poke someone else, distract others, &/or God knows what else.

If you’re a brilliant person who doesn’t need a teacher, good for you.  But please understand what it must be like to be responsible for not only 210 immature people, but for making sure they learn something valuable, & doing it in the calmest way possible 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, 180 days a year.

Well, they put videos in school busses, the bus drivers don’t necessarily have control.  It might help both students & teachers think about the context they build everyday. I love this blog for anything school-related in national news.  You can also check out this.

Interesting question in that second link:

When is the last time that anyone saw teacher stress or burnout addressed in the Mainstream Media?

Answer: 13 Feb. 05 Time magazine cover story, Parents behaving badly  It was all about how kids feel like they rule the place and parents do exactly zero to back up the teachers, high teacher turnover, etc.  I also see articles about it quite frequently in the Chicago Trubune.

No wonder we don’t get brilliant teachers.

On a related matter, I can only wonder about the minds that can believe forcing people to recite a pledge everyday will increase patriotism.  Kids are allowed none of the freedoms they are promised as Americans.  It’s all pie-in-the-sky to them.

Would allowing such freedoms make schools impossible to manage?  Maybe, unless some other priorities are put in order.  Every class needs at least one teacher’s aid, for example. No one should have to control 35 adversaries.

Too much money?  Have to look at

school sports

other programs to cut so we can concentrate on the core mission of education.

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that students didn’t have to stand for the pledge. I know there are several groups in the country who won’t say the pledge—Jehovah’s Witnesses, for one.