But Casey, should it be a teacher that initiates and encourages such a thing?
Well, fuck you, too.
I’m so glad you approve of this ancient idea. In that case, I’d like to charge you of being a witch. I hope you enjoy your fucking venerable goddamed tests. Asshat.
I’ve had teachers bust my ass all the time. But if the kid is so damn sensitive that he can’t let it go, and loses concentration to the point where he failed to answer 1/3 of the test, then there are some maturity issues at play. Yeah, for the teacher as well, but mostly Little Josh. I wonder how many of the mean rotten students who were throwing all that nasty hard paper at him completed the test. Where could they possibly have found the time?
Someone should teach him the difference between “laughing with” and “laughing at”. Preferably by handing his ass to him and laughing while they do it :mad:
OK, I don’t really condone violence against him. But bullies make me so mad, particularly when they are in a position of authority. And when they are adults, and should know better, dammit!
Because bullies (and that’s what this teacher is) can teach in private schools, too, and a student would have even less recourse against them than they would against a public school teacher. Unless, of course, they wanted to transfer to another school in the middle of a term. And transferring in the middle of a term is a problem, even if there’s not an issue of paying for the new school.
I’m not saying school vouchers are a bad idea; I’m just saying they’re not the solution to problems like this. Damned if I know what is, though.
No.
People sucking it up is why bullies start to get away with this sort of thing. They should be punished and punished hard the first time they bully someone else. We should never tolerate bullying like this, under any circumstances.
Now, if it were verbally ribbing on him a little bit before class, that might be different. But it shouldn’t include encouraging other students to do so, and it certainly shouldn’t include any sort of deliberate humiliation like making him sit on the floor in the center of a circle of desks, or throwing anything at him. Especially not during a midterm.
We’ve got a thing called freedom of speech in this country, that allows me to wear my Broncos jersey it in the middle of Steeler Nation, on the weekend before the game against the Broncos to decide who goes to the Super Bowl, with no retaliation allowed from those in authority.
But Anne, he wore a Broncos jersey in Steelers country!!!
Fuck you, asshole. Did it escape your pea-brained attention that it was a fucking teacher that was leading this abuse? If it had been a bunch of his peers doing this on their own outside of class, I’d absolutely agree with you, but it wasn’t. It was a fucking teacher during a goddamn midterm exam. This was no lighthearted ribbing, this was out-and-out abuse. It’s inexcusable, and I hope they fire that so-called “teacher”.
I guess you took the wrong meaning from what I said. I was saying that vouchers would encourage this behavior, by supporting the organization that has demonstrated a willingness to practice it. I was hit by Catholic school teachers, through my senior year in high school, and do not send my children to Catholic schools or services. They are Unitarians, as I am.
Wow! You’re an asshole!
Abuse? Serously? Getting hit with a wad of paper, even several wads of paper, is not abuse. My pea brain has a sense of perspective. Had they punched him, or thrown their text books at him, then I’d see it a little differently. They threw crumpled up paper at him. I see it as ribbing, not assault.
Ya know, I had a teacher or two bust my ass back in the day (and at college, it stayed a bright red), but I don’t ever recall one that had the class join in. I’ve seen stuff like that happen, although it’s usually only been in the movies.
I dunno, maybe different strokes and all that. And I’m not saying he shouldn’t learn to have a bit of a thicker skin. We can all benefit from that. However, if whatever you’re doing as a teacher prevents any of the kids from the actual goal of class in the first place, IE: learning, than one would suppose you’d need to rethink your strategy.
As to the other kids, I’m sure it took much less time to was up a piece of paper and toss it than to be embarrassed beyond belief and worried about everyone’s opinion of you, while you take a mid-term essay test, on the floor, after being possibly man-handled, told where you normally set wasn’t your desk and endured taunts and physical (albeit almost non-existent – I think that would only qualify in the humiliation department) abuse. I don’t believe I’d be able to think straight. I’d undoubtedly be so pissed I’d be shaking, crying and not seeing straight. Hell, I’m surprised he took it at all. If all that was truly unheard of, he should have been out the door filing a complaint with the principle immediately.
YMMV.
I agree that vouchers aren’t a cure-all. But, in the case you posit, the student’s family can hurt the school protecting the bully, by costing it money, when they take their student out of the school. As it is, they can do dick-all but sue to hurt this school district. And that takes money to do.
saorise, sorry. I over-reacted. I realize now you didn’t mean it that way. I’m not entirely rational on the topic of teacher’s abusing their authority. (Nor anyone else, but especially teachers in public schools, having been a victim of it.) Not an excuse for over-reacting to your comments, which are obviously just as dearly paid for as my own comments about public schools, just a word of explaination.
I didn’t go to a Catholic high school, but I considered one after the public schools forced me out. I saw, and heard, nothing about that during my time interviewing there (Massachusetts in the mid-80’s) but I can’t say it didn’t happen. But, again, as I said to Anne Neville if the parents of the student so affected didn’t feel that the school was safe or proper, they could hurt it by removing their tuition. Which gives even a Catholic school a bit more of a reason to be responsive to such complaints than most public schools seem to be.
I just feel that having some means, any means, really, to punish a public school system for defending this crap would be better than the system as it exists, now. Where, even if a family has to take a student out of the public schools because the teachers have helped to create an environment of humiliation for a student that left them no other choice for the health of their child, the school system still gets the same monies as if they were still teaching that student.
Did your parents expect that behavior from your school?
Not in and of itself. But, in the context of a midterm exam when a student can be expected to be under some stress to begin with, AND he is forced to sit on the floor AND the “teacher” instructs the students to arrange their desks in a circle around him AND they are directed to pelt him with paper wads while he’s trying to take the test, then, yes, it’s abuse. Seriously.
I’ve been saying for years that by and large Steeler fans are thugs, looks like it’s because they are raised that way.
“Now Jethro, yoo dun good wit that little Bruncko faggot, I think ahle let yoo fuck yer sister first tonight, jus’ don be touching my Arn City beeah, y’hear?”
And people wonder why some cities have to double the police presence at their football stadiums when the Steelers come to town. :rolleyes:
The only reason the school district will hold this moronic insult to teaching responsible for his breach of educator ethics is if Josh and his parents threaten suit.
Screw taking it to the school board. Take it to the state board of educator certification. This man should not be in the classroom, and he should not have charge over one hundred different students through the course of the day.
Yeah, because private schools have no history of mistreating students…
Transferring to a new school mid-semester is not easy to do. And it makes life more difficult for the kid, when the one whose life should be being made difficult is this asswipe of a bullying “teacher”.
What if even more parents think this is a good way to treat non-conforming students, so they transfer their kids to this school? The school would be rewarded for doing something that, however popular, is wrong.
I think that would be unlikely to happen in this particular case, since what the teacher did was particularly egregious, but it might happen in more borderline cases. Not everybody likes a nonconformist, as I learned all too well in school. And some people don’t seem to understand why people they dislike should be protected from harassment. 
You’re a fucking moron.
Don’t suppose you’re a Steeler fan, by any chance?
I’ve never said that private schools are perfect. I said they’re more responsive than public schools to concerns raised by families. Do you really think that an asshat of a teacher who does this shit should still be teaching when he’s admitted that he’s done the same thing to other students, too?
Now, Anne Neville and saoirse, both raise the disturbing point that some parents will approve of this sort of bullshit. That’s a valid concern, and one for which I don’t have an answer.
Realizing that abuses happen is not a reason to continue to give public schools a monopoly on education monies, when they prove recalcitrant to police their teachers.
Not to the point where I’d wear a Franco Harris jersey to my midterm exam at Tacoma High next Friday, but yes.
Nor are public schools.
That’s a two-edged sword, though. They’d be more responsive to concerns raised by families about teachers abusing children, yes, but they might also be more responsive to concerns raised by families who don’t want evolution taught to their children, or who don’t want their children being taught to tolerate gays and lesbians.
Of course not. I think his teaching license should be permanently revoked.
It’s happened. When public schools were desegregated in Mississippi, a lot of white parents sent their kids to private schools that, while they were no better academically than the public schools, were all-white. They had to pay to do that, and they still did it. I really don’t want my taxes going towards schools that cater to that kind of troglodytes.