Student verbally assaulting teacher in front of class

[Anonymous]

I am an elementary school teacher and sadly, this isn't rare. I've always built great relationships with students and usually have a way with hard to reach kids. However, the last five years has been a revolving door of students with little to no respect. Yes, the pandemic hasn't helped but this started well before March 2020. I've been hit more times than I can count, called every horrible thing under the sun, and still parents dismissing our calls and calling us racists. I remember in the fall of 2019 I got punched in the face by a student because I leaned down and asked him to stop threatening a peer. I ended up with a bruised face and my DH was furious. He actually wants me to quit but I LOVE teaching.

I just wish the general public knew how often bad stuff goes down even at the elementary level. I know the school to prison pipeline stats and understand the theory behind restorative practices, but we need to start inconveniencing these parents who let their kids go ape shit on us at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am an elementary school teacher and sadly, this isn't rare. I've always built great relationships with students and usually have a way with hard to reach kids. However, the last five years has been a revolving door of students with little to no respect. Yes, the pandemic hasn't helped but this started well before March 2020. I've been hit more times than I can count, called every horrible thing under the sun, and still parents dismissing our calls and calling us racists. I remember in the fall of 2019 I got punched in the face by a student because I leaned down and asked him to stop threatening a peer. I ended up with a bruised face and my DH was furious. He actually wants me to quit but I LOVE teaching.

I just wish the general public knew how often bad stuff goes down even at the elementary level. I know the school to prison pipeline stats and understand the theory behind restorative practices, but we need to start inconveniencing these parents who let their kids go ape shit on us at school.

It's a parent to prison pipeline. Schools are just in the middle and get blamed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This type of behavior should never be tolerated if American schools are to retain teachers. Other cultures would never tolerate this disrespect. Honestly it’s the overly permissive liberal culture.

Exactly the opposite. It's the Trump effect. Hateful imbeciles and their progeny have been emboldened since 2016.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This type of behavior should never be tolerated if American schools are to retain teachers. Other cultures would never tolerate this disrespect. Honestly it’s the overly permissive liberal culture.

Spare the rod, spoil the child! It's worked for millennia.

Don't quote Bible verses you don't understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Straight to the union and do what? I am a teacher and this is common, along side throwing stuff at us. It’s part of the job.

Call the police and report a verbal assault. This is BS, not fair to teacher or students. If you are a parent, document it, email all other parents in class and write a letter of complaint to principal ccing area superintendent.

You. Are. Joking.

The police would laugh in her face.

[Anonymous]

The kids are just going through a phase. A little restorative justice and the assaulting will end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Straight to the union and do what? I am a teacher and this is common, along side throwing stuff at us. It’s part of the job.

Call the police and report a verbal assault. This is BS, not fair to teacher or students. If you are a parent, document it, email all other parents in class and write a letter of complaint to principal ccing area superintendent.

You. Are. Joking.

The police would laugh in her face.

The county exec and the council have also made it clear they don’t want police anywhere near students. Remember the SRO debacle? Teachers are on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am an elementary school teacher and sadly, this isn't rare. I've always built great relationships with students and usually have a way with hard to reach kids. However, the last five years has been a revolving door of students with little to no respect. Yes, the pandemic hasn't helped but this started well before March 2020. I've been hit more times than I can count, called every horrible thing under the sun, and still parents dismissing our calls and calling us racists. I remember in the fall of 2019 I got punched in the face by a student because I leaned down and asked him to stop threatening a peer. I ended up with a bruised face and my DH was furious. He actually wants me to quit but I LOVE teaching.

I just wish the general public knew how often bad stuff goes down even at the elementary level. I know the school to prison pipeline stats and understand the theory behind restorative practices, but we need to start inconveniencing these parents who let their kids go ape shit on us at school.

The school to prison pipeline is concerning in large part because we know that teachers respond differently to the same behaviors from Black boys vs White boys. Getting rid of any consequences is the lazy way out and doesn't change the behavior of teachers, just the tools at their disposal. Don't use MCPS's ineptitude as an excuse to ignore the history. Not all of this is about parents - it's also about MCPS having absolutely no idea how to educate students of color.

[Anonymous]

I hope that people can see the multiple teachers that have posted on this thread that are experiencing this same issue. The overwhelming majority of teachers (on this thread at least) have written about how they value connection and have a heart for their students - all students. We are trying to support our students as best as we can but the amount of needs does not come close to matching the amount of support needed. Many of our students who have not experienced “severe” trauma are in crisis (a combination from the pandemic, excessive technology that I believe is requiring our kids brains, social media, etc.), and we don’t have the resources and staff to handle these complex needs. We have several students at our school who have qualified for a one-on-one aide yet those positions remain infilled. We have numerous other students who are not “coded” who need constant co-regulation. I believe that most parents truly are doing the best they can but they are frustrated and need additional resources as well.

Adding more temp para positions, which come with low pay and no benefits. This, along with the understanding that regardless of professional ability level, MCPS continues to use the last hired/first fired, a policy that does little to inspire building a long-standing connection with the students, school, and community. Dr. McKnight, we need more permanent para positions and more resource staff available to help with the behavior and learning needs of our students!

[Anonymous]

I volunteer to help para educators and I’m called every word in the book.

One kid especially hated my guts. My life got really busy and I didn’t come back for 6 months.

In that time the boy was a model student. The teachers worked with him, counselors worked with him and medication was finally right.

I was amazed! Way to go teachers in the ED program.

[Anonymous]

Just posted above, should be been “re-wiring our kids brains” and “positions remain unfilled” and “adding more temp para positions will not meet the needs.”

[Anonymous]

Teachers get “assaulted” all the time. It’s different when kids do it. Basically you just secure everyone’s physical safety and then try to manage it as a behavioral problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am an elementary school teacher and sadly, this isn't rare. I've always built great relationships with students and usually have a way with hard to reach kids. However, the last five years has been a revolving door of students with little to no respect. Yes, the pandemic hasn't helped but this started well before March 2020. I've been hit more times than I can count, called every horrible thing under the sun, and still parents dismissing our calls and calling us racists. I remember in the fall of 2019 I got punched in the face by a student because I leaned down and asked him to stop threatening a peer. I ended up with a bruised face and my DH was furious. He actually wants me to quit but I LOVE teaching.

I just wish the general public knew how often bad stuff goes down even at the elementary level. I know the school to prison pipeline stats and understand the theory behind restorative practices, but we need to start inconveniencing these parents who let their kids go ape shit on us at school.

I agree with you that this started well before the pandemic hit. My guess is the push to mainstream kids with "behaviors" (which has been going on since the early 2000s?) and then the implementation of restorative justice (2018ish?) have been a one two whammy on behavior in schools. We had an issue with the bathrooms being destroyed at our kids' MS (literally kids would rip sinks off the walls). Nothing is done. It just kept happening. MCPS being slow to repair bathrooms was supposed to be a "natural consequence". WTF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers get “assaulted” all the time. It’s different when kids do it. Basically you just secure everyone’s physical safety and then try to manage it as a behavioral problem.

Can a teacher report an assault to the police? If so, this is what I'd do every time. Seems like that is a major PIA for the parents. Maybe it would result in parents insising kid gets moved to another classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an elementary school teacher and sadly, this isn't rare. I've always built great relationships with students and usually have a way with hard to reach kids. However, the last five years has been a revolving door of students with little to no respect. Yes, the pandemic hasn't helped but this started well before March 2020. I've been hit more times than I can count, called every horrible thing under the sun, and still parents dismissing our calls and calling us racists. I remember in the fall of 2019 I got punched in the face by a student because I leaned down and asked him to stop threatening a peer. I ended up with a bruised face and my DH was furious. He actually wants me to quit but I LOVE teaching.

I just wish the general public knew how often bad stuff goes down even at the elementary level. I know the school to prison pipeline stats and understand the theory behind restorative practices, but we need to start inconveniencing these parents who let their kids go ape shit on us at school.

The school to prison pipeline is concerning in large part because we know that teachers respond differently to the same behaviors from Black boys vs White boys. Getting rid of any consequences is the lazy way out and doesn't change the behavior of teachers, just the tools at their disposal. Don't use MCPS's ineptitude as an excuse to ignore the history. Not all of this is about parents - it's also about MCPS having absolutely no idea how to educate students of color.

Interesting comment. I have been through a lot of training as a teacher in MCPS.

One of the problems is that were are not actually taught much about the cultures of our students. Even simple things like word choice is very powerful and is miscommunicated. Certain words like "thug" have a different meaning to a white female teacher than they do to a "black male student". All of it comes down to context. Don't get me started on all of the non-white students using the N-word. I have to scratch my head when a Hispanic kids calls an Asian kid the N-word.

Until they start teaching student culture to teachers expect continued misunderstandings and distance in teacher to student relationships. Right now they are trying to convince the teachers at my school to integrate cell phone use into class. But that basically just turning complex education into simple games, not improving outcomes on an test.