You are correct. I had forgotten that it had already been mentioned in the thread.
I had wondered in an earlier post about whether Josh had returned to school, was given a re-test, and whether the teacher had been disciplined. According to this article, Josh has not returned to school this week (I assume, then, not given the opportunity to take a re-test) and the teacher has not been disciplined. The investigation is still ongoing.
I just wonder about one thing. In the article, it says that the lawyer is waiting until tomorrow to meet with officials about Josh returning to school next week. “Our No. 1 concern is getting him back to school as quickly as possible and making sure he’s in a safe environment,” he is quoted as saying.
No one’s met with the school yet? It’s Thursday, already. Surely his grades in other classes must be beginning to suffer as well. And is permitting a retest after all this time fair under any circumstance? (This is an honest question, I’m really curious, not looking to fan any flames.)
I’m not surprised that he hasn’t shown up, and were I him I’d seriously be looking into transfering. If he was the target of teacher-sanctioned abuse before, he’s in for hell now.
And yes, from a teacher’s point of view I’d say a retest is fair due to the circumstances.
Even though something could have been worked out before tomorrow? I mean the lawer isn’t even meeting with the administration until tomorrow. Surely a test at home (proctored by the Vice Principal or some other school official, obviously not Kelly) could have been arranged for earlier in the week.
From what I understand, it was a course in Ethnic Relations and discrimination. The lesson could very well have been: At some point most ethnicities have been singled out and humiliated for being different, and at some point during the course each of them will be singled out and humiliated for something that makes them different from their classmates.
It can’t be both? Bill Nye is damn silly, but I always learned something from him.
I find it as hard to believe that Josh didnt know that this kind of thing went on in this class. It’s a small school (~160 students/grade) and the teacher appears to be the most popular one there. There have already been two accounts of similar events, reported by another student and the teacher himself. This of course would make Josh the worst kind of “victim”, one who sat idly by and watch other students be humiliated, to coward to report anything.
A lesson requires instruction. The teacher was just cruel to his student. He didn’t even claim to have provided a word of instruction and it is obviously a rationalization after the fact.
There’s a reason why best practices models of pedagogy refer to ‘explicit instruction’.
No, it can’t be both, in this situation, as should be obvious. You’re using a false analogy.
If it’s silly fun then it’s not designed to make anybody uncomfortable. Thus, it’s not an “object lesson”.
Or, it was designed to make the kid feel uncomfortable and thus, wasn’t “silly fun”.
Can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Prior knowledge of wrongdoing doesn’t make the actions right. Written policy or not the teacher is a fool and a moron. If you can’t teach a course on discrimination without emotionally abusing your students and/or forcing them to fail tests while abusing your position in authority, you don’t deserve to be teaching.
So?
All the more reason to remove his incompetent ass ASAP.
Even if that’s true, why is that a reason not to remove the teacher? How does that matter? I really don’t understand that accusations against the kid. Who cares? If he was a satanist who went home and fucked dogs before eating them alive, the teacher still would be unfit to educate students.
Maybe they just meant the kid told them in good faith he was an honor student.
Interesting. Another thread in this forum is castigating a high school student who made a false allegation against a teacher. Still, few posters here want to give this teacher the benefit of the doubt pending an investigation.
But as a Steeler’s fan I appreciate the criticism levied at Weirddave’s unsupported portrayal of us as thugs. Searches of the Baltimore Sun and Baltimore City Paper have shown that despite the Ravens/Steelers rivalry, no one has thought to write an article documenting the assaults and near-riots that occur every time the Steelers come to town. Presumably because the violence doesn’t exist and Weirddave can suck my towel. Take it up with these guys.
This is kinda wacky. I know I’ve posted this as least two times, probably five times, maybe ten times.
Here goes, yet again:
It has already been confirmed. By the school and by the teacher and by the students in the class. Nobody, not anybody, has disagreed with the events portrayed, simply differed as to the purpose of the events. Everybody who has gone on record agrees that the events happened.
Can we please put this to bed now?
Well, no. The school’s position is that it was a joke that went too far, and any action taken against Kelly will indicate the school’s findings better than any statement will. Kelly confirms that he had Joshua sit on the floor, but denies grabbing him, threatening his grade, etc. I’m afraid I haven’t seen any from Joshua’s classmates. If you would link me to their stories, I’d apprquotes eciate it.
Some of the posters here have been accused of letting their own experiences of being victims of bullying cloud their focus. As a teacher, I may be coming at this from my own prejudices. It’s not only that the story doesn’t match up to what I know goes on in schools, it’s my own personal experience of false allegations and how the story grows.
Anyway, I’m not going to shake you in your belief in Joshua, and you’re not going to shake my wait-and-see attitude, so we’ll just watch the story unfold.
Kelly, the school, and his students all agree that events when down as essentially reported. Why do we need to wait?
So? That’s a minor distinction. He’d still be unsuited to teaching even if the ‘only’ thing he did was have a student sit on the floor and be pelted with wads of paper duing a midterm. And a teacher is always in a position of authority and quite possibly coercive, abusive authority. If a student is told to do something by a teacher is can be reasonably assumed that there will be penalties for non-compliance. They don’t have to be explicit. Especially if there is a class participation component to the final grade.
[QUOTE=Veronica]
I’m afraid I haven’t seen any from Joshua’s classmates. If you would link me to their stories, I’d apprquotes eciate it.
Check post 76. It states that the student body had been talking about it all day, but nobody was quoted as saying that it didn’t happen. Indeed, one student was quoted as saying that having papers thrown at you was a fairly common occurance.
Well, as a teacher myself I’m shocked that his instructional ‘technique’ is emotional abuse and that he considers being abusive to a student while providing no explicit instruction, at all, to be a lesson.
Eh, I believe the school, and the teacher, and the kids. If this shit was S.O.P for the teacher, as seems to be the case, he has no right teaching.
Excuse me for butting in so late, but are we to construe from this that Casey1505 solicited your efforts to defend his family business?
Sailboat
Go back and reread. I never weighed in at all on whether or not Casey is a fit parent. Therefore, I was not defending them.
I probably should clarify: I don’t know whether Casey is a fit parent or not, as I have no information on which to base that judgment. Further, it would be wildly out of line for me to offer Casey unsolicited, highly critical advice on that topic. I was not defending Casey’s parenting. I was defending his “right” to not be subjected to such rude, impertinent behavior.
:rolleyes: I thought this tangent was covered and resolved. It has been as far as I’m concerned.
I am a fit parent, and those personally connected to my family would agree, be they relatives, friends, neighbors, teachers, whatever. My son is a happy, healthy, well adjusted 5 year old who is at or near the top of his kindergarten class, and enjoys a vast array of hobbies such as coloring, animals, science and Kung Fu. He is as well behaved as any 5 year old can be expected, does not start trouble at school, knows right from wrong, etc., etc., etc.
My opinions in this thread have had no bearing on the manner in which I raise my child. It’s one topic, less than a week old, on a worldwide message board. How much could someone possibly infer from that about my skills as a parent?
If you’d like to second guess me on this, please start a new thread. Until then, can we please take my value as a parent off the table already?
I’ll back this, seeing as how I started it! Casey’s verbalized attitudes and his bringing his son into the picture, combined with my own experiences in dealing with people whose fathers were unsupportive “Make a man out of him” types, led me to jump to a conclusion that appears unwarranted. His later remarks have made it clear that his attitudes re a 17-year-old don’t apply to his own parenting methods. Not that that was my business – but dammit, if I see a situation where it sounds like a kid’s being maltreated by his own father, I see red. And I think Casey saw my intent, based on his answer to me.
So let’s put his parenting to rest.
Now about the teacher and the kid: Have we got any more substantiated facts about what went on here? I think we’ve covered every hypothetical explanation except for an apparition of the Virgin Mary ordering the teacher to instigate the paper-wad throwing. Can we pin down facts, like the kid was exaggerating, the teacher was actually being as big a dickwad as he seems, the teacher was doing an object lesson, or anything?
We know that the student was told by an authority figure to sit on the floor instead of on his desk during an exam. And we know that the same authority figure told other students in the class to throw paper at him.
The rest is somewhat hazy, but what we do know seems to be enough to know as a fact that the teacher is a dick.
Well, the teacher himself is not claiming it was any kind of lesson.
Ok, so it’s possible that Josh was expecting this sort of thing at some point, but during a midterm? That’s fucking ridiculous! You need all the calm, peace and concentration you can get then, and obviously he was getting precious little.
Josh will return to school Monday. He can drop the class if he wants to, but if he stays, he will be given a retest.
Kelly was not suspended, as he continued teaching all week, and there has been no decision made on whether or not to discipline him.