Speaking from personal experience… I never had my mouth washed out with soap (my mom cursed up a storm and didn’t believe in the ‘do what I tell you, not what I do’ crap.) I knew well enough not to swear at school.
However, even the tiniest bit of soap in my mouth makes me vomit violently and without warning. I once scraped my toothbrush on the bottle of soap next to the sink without realizing it. That was unpleasant. So, I feel for the kid, a bit.
[Christmas Story] “What brought you to this lowly state?”
“It was… SOAP POISONING!” 
“Don’t you give me that look, mister!”
In summary… good teacher, bad student, bad administrators, bad parents. Period. Kid is not going to be harmed by a little soap (or discipline!) It can only help. How, Oh How!!! did kids who grew up in the '40’s (or earlier) EVER grow up to such a ripe old age??? :rolleyes:
whoops… [/christmas story]
close your tags, man!
What incredible cure-all option have they got?
I never said the child shouldn’t be disciplined, only not in that manner. Liquid soap is not intended for ingestion in the best of circumstances and in the worst, it could lead to very serious problems in the case of allergies. The teacher was stupid to endanger her career in such a manner and between her stupidity leading to her suspension and the fact that it’s paid, I have no feelings of sympathy for the woman.
Also, perhaps one problem is the perceived arbitrariness. If you say “next time you say ‘xxxx’ you’ll get soaped” you might have an effect, but if you just do it, it’s likely to feel unfair, since people have done similar things without being punished, and then then you can feel you have no control, and hence no incentive to improve your behaviour. Not necessarily the case here, but it might explain why people feel picking a punishment based on not being able to take it any more, rather than a policy, is a bad idea. OTOH, I think some kids DO need some discipline, and being sent home ISN’T, because they don’t care. Maybe I’d try slapping, but I don’t know.
Wow, I can’t believe how many different views everyone has on this;
I went to primary school in a little shit hole with about 100 students and most of the kids had parents who were unemployed or uncouth in some way or another and the filth these children talked was quite distressing when you’re only in Year One. One child, George, got expelled in Year Five for various naughty things but I can remember him sitting on our Kindergarten teacher’s lap during reading time and he was such a good boy! Students are only as naughty as the teacher lets them be. What that teacher did was quite well-placed in my opinion - that boy obviously respected her for it; that’s also why George was so good in Kindy - our teacher respected each of us and taught us the right way to behave. Teachers like that are way underpaid. If all the parents are saying bring her back and no one has really said ‘I don’t want that loony near my darling, nasty, smart mouthed, rude and arrogant brat’ then what’s stopping her?