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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOklahoma City teacher: Abuse from students driving teachers out of district
A tearful Mackinley Cross told school board members Monday night that the district is about to see a mass exodus of teachers unless something is done to correct the widespread lack of discipline she said she sees on a daily basis.
Im here this evening because I feel that we as a district are rapidly approaching a point of no return, a point at which our district will implode, she said. If we do not begin to speak openly and honestly about what is happening in our schools, we will reach this point sooner than any of us can imagine.
She said teachers are routinely cursed at and told to shut up by students. Other teachers have had personal property stolen or damaged. Some students walk out of class whenever they feel like it, she said.
She told board members that just last week she was assaulted by a student and has the bruises to prove it.
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-teacher-abuse-from-students-driving-teachers-out-of-district/article/5420723
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)I would give him a simple assignment: "Explain in no less than 2 pages why your behaviour is inappropriate. If your explanation is insufficient, I will assign you a failing-grade for this course. You have one day."
But when they assault a teacher they ought to be getting 10 days, no questions asked, he said.
No, they ought to be assigned to separate classes away from normal students or expelled from school.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)A big problem is that administrators, who don't have to be in the classroom anymore, won't back you on discipline.
wordpix
(18,652 posts)I had a small group of parents complain that I regularly "lost" their kids' assignments. I explained my method of collecting papers, color coding each class, and returning the papers. Parents couldn't fault me there. Funny it was always the same 4 kids whose assignments I regularly "lost," but none of the other 75 students ever complained.
These same students were also the ones who most disrupted the classes. One of the problems was class size, which was 25+ 6th graders. The classes were hands-on science, and some kids used out-of-the-seat time during lab experiments for sword fighting with rulers and grabbing hats and pencils. I finally insisted to the admin. on having an assistant to help keep order and that made all the difference. I also stopped giving homework to end the "teacher lost my assignments" complaints.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Apparently I was only careless when it came to losing her assignments.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)But as nh points out, it's complicated these days
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)Mommy and Daddy come in and claim you are hurting their little precious's educational opportunities and restricting his ability to learn. Then the teacher gets blamed.
hunter
(38,264 posts)The disruptive students themselves were easy. Maybe because I was bigger than most of them and I'd experienced worse shit.
Some of the parents, if they could be dragged into school for parent-teacher-administrator meetings, were horrors.
Many of my students lived in very bad situations.
My favorite student ever, a big girl who was probably running drugs and had once stuck her pager in her bra daring me to take it, broke up a fight between two rival gangsters, a fight I wasn't willing to step into because that was the week guns had been found in lockers.
Bless school administration, those two never came back to my classroom, but I still think they were just kids who deserved better than whatever they got.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Now on that point I can agree with you. I saw a lot of kids who were from bad home situations.
wordpix
(18,652 posts)One 17 y.o. was homeless and earned $ fighting in neighborhood cockfighting contests
Another 17 y.o. had not been to school consistently until the end of his sophomore year b/c his parents were drug addicts and were always moving the family (w/5 kids) in the middle of the night to evade landlords wanting $. This boy had no bed and slept on the floor of his living room without a mat or sleeping bag.
One of my teen girls was set upon by 3 other girls who wanted to tear her up b/c she had ongoing altercations with a cousin of a fighter-girl at a previous school. The girl who was targeted never returned to school after the 3 went after her.
Many teen girls pregnant by age 15-16.
Several students witnessed friends, neighbors, family members get shot.
Several drug dealers, one with a drug dealing parent in a family business
Many truants, leading to drugs and criminal behavior when they're on the streets and not in school
etc. etc., too many sad stories to go on
kiva
(4,373 posts)I've seen several studies that show teachers dropping out of the profession in droves, and this is a big part of it.
I once had a parent chew me out because her son had been arrested at school. Never mind that he had punched another kid.
IVoteDFL
(417 posts)bad home life, undiagnosed mental problems, trouble learning, etc
Rather than blaming children, I would like to see an honest discussion about the issues that students face today. I think teachers should be taught to recognize when a student is struggling and the proper way to handle the circumstances before the student begins to act out.
It's never okay to abuse anyone physically. Whoever gave her bruises should be expelled, but looking back on HS (And it's only been 8 years) it was way more common for a teacher to lose their shit and attack a student. In ninth grade we had a nun come teach at our (Public) school. I remember her crying on the last day of school because she was fired. Well, she threw a text book at a black kid's face and called him a monkey so yeah nobody felt sorry for her.
I also can't believe that a bunch of teachers are going to quit because students cuss them out and walk out of class. People get cussed out and told to shut up in an awful lot of jobs.
kcr
(15,300 posts)This is the new trend in public school bashing in the media. Give the burned out student bashing teacher rants attention and act as if that's the whole problem right there. I absolutely think this teacher and anyone who feels like her should leave. She obviously has contempt for the student body where she teaches and that isn't good.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Low pay and shitty treatment by parents, students, and administrators are common.
You obviously have no idea what you're talking about.
kcr
(15,300 posts)Just like every other job with disgruntled employees who complain. Just watch the massive exodus that happens. Oh, wait. That doesn't happen.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)I left because I hated it and because I found a better job. It's really not hard to find a better job than teaching. I lucked out and landed the job that I'm in now, but if I hadn't I was going to go drive a truck. It pays better and you don't have to deal with as many assholes as teachers do.
You want to knock teachers, be my guest. Just remember that they do jobs most people couldn't and wouldn't do, and they do it for little money (at least here in Oklahoma).
kcr
(15,300 posts)I don't think people should stay in jobs they hate. But taking this woman's words and projecting them onto all teachers is a fallacy. Plenty of people find jobs with risk of physical assault rewarding. The ones who don't, leave. But we shouldn't take their words to heart and form policy based on their disgruntled rantings.
tblue37
(64,979 posts)KitSileya
(4,035 posts)only interested in the paycheck. Those who will teach to the test, who will give passing grades unfairly, those who will destroy an entire generation of teenagers. That generation of teenagers will be in charge of the country when you are old - or rather, the teenagers in private schools with good teachers will be in charge, and these teenagers will be serfs and slaves and broken people.
How can anyone on a progressive website like DU not see the danger of that, and if they do, how can they not be advocating for the poor?
kcr
(15,300 posts)People tend to think that everyone else thinks just like they do. So, those who are burned out will believe that everyone else must be too, and therefore everyone will follow them out the door. But it never happens. I'm not saying I blame people for feeling the way they do, especially in tough jobs. My point is we don't only listen to those who are burned out in the tough jobs and base policy on them.
Oktober
(1,488 posts)kcr
(15,300 posts)She didn't say what that teacher chose to do.
tblue37
(64,979 posts)(SNIP)
She told board members that just last week she was assaulted by a student and has the bruises to prove it.
(SNIP)
According to a police report, Cross was attempting to break up a fight Thursday at Coolidge Elementary, 5212 S Villa, when she was kicked and elbowed by a 10-year-old boy.
(SNIP)
kcr
(15,300 posts)I missed that she was then talking about herself.
kcr
(15,300 posts)I missed that she was then talking about herself.
kcr
(15,300 posts)I missed that she was then talking about herself.
kcr
(15,300 posts)I missed that she was then talking about herself.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)That'll solve the problem. Good job, man.
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)Until we address the corrosive effects of poverty living in gulags of the poor, nothing will get better.
As to the "big girl, the difference between the Koch brothers and her is that the capitalist enterpirse run by the Koch brothers is legal.
A tough, enterprising person, wlling to work hard and get her hands drity could easly run a multi-billion dollar corporation or a drug cartel.
In areas of deep poverty, students do not have few opportunities to become monumentally wealthy assholes who buy Governors, Conressmen, Senators, and even Presidents and call it a business expense.
NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Unfortunately true. I could tell you some pretty heartbreaking stories.
Of course, when I ordered pizza on Fridays I was king for a day.