Don’t let this dog-fucker learn that he can get away with this sort of crap. Get the cops involved. Too many kids think they can get away with assault or harassment because they’re “just kids”- this one needs to learn that that isn’t how it works.
It’s not your fault for having a relaxed classroom environment- there are lots and lots of those, in grade schools, middle schools (or whatever they’re calling them now), high schools, and colleges, in which nobody gets punched.
If you can believe Laura Ingalls Wilder, kids assaulted teachers who presumably used “old school” discipline, too:
Allow me to be the first to call your adminstration goat-felching, spineless, brain-dead, pussy, dumbass, dipshit, mother-fucking, cunt-faced, necrophiliac, MORONS.
They let a kid go back into classrooms after punching a teacher?
Waitaminute, let me re-read your post; maybe I missed something.
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. They let a kid go back into classrooms after punching a young, first-year, 5’2" blonde girl teacher? I know that you aren’t tenure yet, but I would have walked out. I think that I would have walked out regardless of how many years I had been working there.
Ok, enough of my ranting; it won’t help you any. Police report = good idea. Sit down with your AP, Union Rep, Super = good idea.
Of course, I should point out that the outcome of the sit down might be that you get so frustrated with this particular school that you do not stay with them. Which may just be a good idea.
(It’s stories like this that make me really want more oversight for admins and really appreciate the folks I work with. My principal would have called the cops if the kids had hit me - 6’0", 190lbs - let alone one a smaller teacher.)
Check and see if this union or this local has a Sole Bargaining Unit clause in their contract. In some work places they do. If so, your membership is irrelevant and they can/will represent you.
As for the student, he/she/it should have been immediately suspended on the spot and sent home with a follow-up to speak to the parents.
Well I’m glad you’re arm isn’t bruised, El Perro - Not that that means the kid gets to walk, of course.
Maybe it’s best not to call the parents yourself? Maybe they need to hear about this with majesty of the principal’s office behind you? Especially if there’s going to be a legal case, you might need to limit contact with the kid and his family?
Have you spoken to the assistant principal in question? “I am a little concerned about your choice of disciplinary methods in relation to the assault on a teacher by a student yesterday.” Wait until you have their full attention after this sentence. I’m reasonably sure that the assistant principal will not remember any assault at all.
I don’t know what the laws are there in D.C., but here in NJ, hitting a teacher is one of two infractions that are punishable by expulsion from school. Not suspension. Expulsion. As in, go away and never come back. [The other one is pulling a false fire alarm. Go figure.]
The relevant section for punishment of assault: Any student who violates this policy shall face disciplinary action resulting in the student’s suspension and/or expulsion from school.
If the school tries shirking out of at least suspending the kid, I’d say my lovely Perro has a strong case to raise hell.
So this kid, for no reason what so ever, said to himself, “Self, these practice problems are boring. Hey, I know. Lets go hit the teacher in the arm. That will be fun.” Then he just gets up, just walks over and punches you? Sorry, I don’t but it. Either they were playful little taps, or there is something else to this story.
Even if they were “playful little taps” they are inexcusable.
And anyone in a front line situation needs to feel that their superiors will back them up. That’s the worst part of this, from my POV - not that the kid hit the teacher: That’s not good, but not what I found shocking. That the administration could treat this so cavalierly. I just don’t understand that.
A-fucking-men. When I was a kid, it was absolutely unthinkable for a kid to lay a hand on a teacher, even in jest. To do so would have meant an automatic suspension or possibly expulsion. And the administrator just sent him back with a note? WTF?
I’m wondering what sort of bullshit story the kid told the administrator, and no doubt will tell his parents, who’ll be shocked, shocked that anyone could believe their darling would actually strike a teacher, who probably provoked it anyway. :rolleyes:
Perhaps, but I have said things to teachers, and they have said things to me, that if I had made a pit thread about it would elicit similar responses as to this one. For example, my senior year I insinuated that my English teacher got into college parties becuase she was easy. Of course I only did so becuase I thought we had a friendly relationship, but what if I was wrong and that crossed a line? Sometimes you cross a line in a relationship, but as long as there are no ill intentions its simply a matter of letting someone know they went too far.
Cavalierly? Why? Becuase they didn’t call in the SWAT team to have this kid dragged kicking and screaming from school? Scheduling a meeting with both sides is a perfectly controlled, reasonable response. If further punishment is warranted, then it can be doled out after all the facts are in. I mean look at the complete overreaction on this board. Calling the cops, charging him with assault, expelling him. For crying out loud the kid didn’t even leave a mark on our poor widdle dainty teacher.
Lets say the people on this board got their wish. The kid marches down to the principal’s office where he is instantly expelled, the cops are immediately called, and he is dragged away in handcuffs facing assault charges. Am I the only one that could see a pit thread bemoaning the cops dragging a kid from school in handcuffs? Or perhaps one decrying the evils of “zero tolerance” and adminstrators that lack common sense. I can’t believe the howls of outrage a measured, reasonable response is elicting in this thread.
As to the OP, get a freaking grip. Three punches on the arm, light enough to leave no mark mind you, should not be enough to send a grown adult into tears. It sure as hell should not be enough to knock someone off their A-game an entire day later.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
I hope for the sake of this kid you don’t pull this poor widdle victim act. “Well, um Principal Smith, as you can see I am just a poor widdle helpless blonde woman. This kid whos a full head taller than me, becuase remember I am just a poor widdle 5’2” woman, assaulted me three times in the arm. So visciously, I might add, that it left no marks at all on my dainty widdle skin."
Get a grip.
Let me explain to you, and to everyone else in this thread, what charging this kid with assault and expelling him will mean. The first is that he will be forever known as “the kid who got arrested for hitting a teacher.” He will not be remembered as “the kid who got arrested for three light taps on a teacher’s arm.” He will be remembered as the kid who assaulted, i.e. attacked a teacher so harshly he was arrested for it. That is not the image you want to have around the school.
Second, if he is charged with assault he will be arrested. That means he might be handcuffed by the police, searched, and finger printed. A traumatic experience for anyone, let alone a 12-13 year old boy. In addition to being arrested, he will have to go through the ordeal of a trial. That probably entails hiring an expensive lawyer that his family may or may not be able to afford. Lastly, every college application, job application, scholarship application etc. etc. will have the question “Have you ever been arrested? If so, please explain.”
That means every college he applies to, every scholarship he wants etc. etc. will get to hear the story of how he was arrested for assaulting his teacher. Now, again remembering that assault does not evoke “three light taps on the arm,” it evokes a much more serious attack, is this the type of person you want in your college or to recieve your scholarship? I don’t think so.
On to the result of expulsion. Depending on your district, and I imagine for a large one like DC this is the case, expulsion means you are sent to the “alternative” high school. In this alternative high school he will most likely take classes with drug dealers, gang members, people who really attacked someone among other unsavory individuals. Most of them will be counting down the days till they drop out. In that sort of enviroment the education he will recieve is much below the standard in his current high school.
Normally these alternative high school’s do not have sports teams or any sort of activities. Even beyond simply removing an activity that this kid may enjoy, you have to think what is happening here. You are removing positive influences in his life, and sticking him in a decidedly negative situation. What do you think that does to his chances of avoiding trouble and leading a successful life?
If you push for expulsion and file charges against this kid you destroy his reputation, put him through a traumatic experience, cost his family a good sum of money, screw him for college and scholarships, considerably lower the level of his education, introduce him to an extremely negative element, and potentially remove positive influences on his life. Is that what this kid really deserves for three little punches to the arm?
It would also be a good idea to drop this “I am just a small little woman” bit.
The student should have been sent home immediately. Under no circumstances should he have been allowed to return to the teacher’s presence. A conference could have been scheduled with the parents for the next day to determine farther action. But the administrator should have checked with the teacher immediately to see if filing a police report was appropriate. (It does not sound appropriate in this case, but a full suspension does.)