Short and simple but will provide the details. My 5 year old son was standing in line with his other classmates. Him and another student leaned out of line to see why their line had stopped. Their temporary teacher who was watching the class for a few moments while the main teacher went and got a drink, called them out, made them face the wall and called the “nosey rosie”. then left went to her room, got a red permanent marker and colored there nose red in front of the rest of the class.
I’m fine with them facing the wall but believe that a teacher should not write on especially the face of a student no mater what age.
The teacher was placed on 48 hours paid administrative leave and then allowed to return. I had a meeting with the principal and the teacher, and neither of them feel like anything wrong was done. The principal said she was placed on admin leave because she did not follow the school districts correct punishment policy but nothing else will be done.
Am i over reacting by thinking more should be done for a teacher coloring my sons nose red at 5 years old?
I don’t think that what she did was right- it was clearly wrong and also in violation of school policy. But I do think that her punishment was appropriate- 2 days of leave was fine, IMO (but I don’t think it should have been paid). It’s not something that she should be fired for.
I think facing the wall is reasonable but the rest sounds pretty messed up. The additional punishment served no purpose other than humiliation for what sounds like a very minor infraction. Not only that, it sounds like the teacher left the students unsupervised in order to carry out her sadistic punishment.
I guess my biggest thought on this, since the topic of bullying is so big on today’s campuses, is this not a teacher bullying a child by setting him up to be harassed by the rest of the students since they are now walking around with a red nose.
Punished for being disruptive I can see but both the punishment (humiliation, marker on the kids, god the reasons why this was wrong could go on and on) and the reason for it are both bullshit.
Also should i pursue this further or drop it is my next concern? She stated in our meeting that she had been doing this for 4 years and we are the only ones to complain. But yet the principal had no idea this was going on. I know its not a lasting effect on my son, hes fine, but im concerned with what she could do if she was really upset with a child’s actions. We are a military family, and will be moving in two weeks, so my son will no longer be at this school. I morally feel like i should pursue this issue, just dont know what i should expect the outcome to be?
I’d be pissed about it, and I’d want to see a corrective action plan for the teacher (are they requiring her to take a class in classroom management? Write out a “how I will handle this differently next time” plan? Anything?), but then I’d drop it.
Yes, she handled it badly. Yes, there needs to be some sort of punishment (and there was) and some sort of correction to ensure she doesn’t do it again (that’s unclear).
But if you overreact, you run the risk of embarrassing your child even more and, worse, teaching him that he can’t handle his own problems. It’s good to support our kids and stand up for them when they’re in harms way, absolutely. But the harm has passed, and now things need to go back to normal, as quickly as possible, to reassure him that he’s not been broken by this experience. He’s strong and capable and he’ll put it behind him when you do, but probably not before.
If you’re moving in two weeks there’s not much you can do, and it sounds like you’ve had a couple of meetings and the matter is considered closed. My primary concern would be making sure that there is an official record of what happened so that the principal can’t play the ‘oh, I didn’t know this was happening’ card again. You could write a letter to the district if you suspect the principal is covering up for this person, but that could also be very inflammatory, so proceed with caution. It won’t do anything for your kid, but it might do something for the next one.
My husband is a substitute teacher and has been warned not to touch students at all. He was standing behind some boys who were talking during an assembly, and put his hand on one’s shoulder as he bent over to tell them to shush. Another teacher later pulled him aside and told him that’s a bad idea. Drawing on a student’s face as punishment would have gotten him fired instantly. However, I’m aware not all schools are like that.
Edit: Two day’s paid leave is a reward, not a punishment, in my book. Can I volunteer for that particular punishment?
I’d be furious. Not the facing the wall (that’s bad enough, but just old-fashioned, not a huge deal), but the de facto encouragement of bullying. This is a serious enough issue in schools today that IMO teachers need to be preventing it, or at minimum not encouraging it.
I actually think this may be illegal in some jurisdictions, and is almost certainly against school discipline policy. Thus, a two day suspension is insufficient. At minimum, I would accept a teacher re-education in modern child development theory, a transfer to another school, and an agreement that said teacher would never be in charge of my child. My child happens to have special needs, so the no contact part would go in his IEP.
Any school that would look on this as no big deal is one where a climate of singling children out for taunts is accepted. Does it matter too much to 5-6 year olds? Probably not. But by the end of elementary school it gets serious and I would not want my 10 year old in a school with such a climate.
So yeah, the specific offense is bad but probably minor in the grand scheme of things. However, the reaction of the school sends up huge red flags about the climate of the school overall, which is why I’d fight it so hard.
If you’re moving, then a letter to the district head is unlikely to backfire on you, so I’d go right ahead and send it to the superintendent, whoever is in charge of discipline at the district level, the head of HR (in case there are HR complaints on this teacher), and anyone else I could think of. Certified mail, copies, the works.
Seriously? Sounds like it has been run to ground. 2 day suspension and write up in the teacher’s file. What do you want? Her to be fired over a stupid mistake?
If it’s bugging you that bad, the night before you leave town, go to her house and paint a big red nose on her garage door.
I’m also curious as to what the child really did. Did they just lean over and attempt to look, or did they actually leave the line? How long had the line been stopped? Unless the school is trying to train unquestioning zombies I would hope that a child is allowed to make some inquiry after a reasonable amount of delay - after all, the line might be stopped because the teacher had a heart attack and is lying on the floor or because the way ahead is on fire and the teacher succumbed to the flames and the student line-leader has gone catatonic! Maybe one of the children in back is the only one who knows CPR or the correct procedures to follow in case of fire.
She was totally out of line. What’s the next step? Whacking the child on the hand with a ruler?
Touching a student is completely out of line!
I went to a high school that enforced corporal punishment. I was terrified every day that I might make a wrong move (Up the down staircase?) and
WHAM! Four swats from the dean.
Not fun.
