Reply to MCPS teachers--what kind of abuse from students goes on in your building?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm also an elementary teacher and we are all at a loss as to what to do.  Our admin is out at every lunch/recess and spend time literally camped out in certain grade level hallways in an attempt to keep control over a handful of unruly students.  Like another poster mentioned, parents have blocked the school's phone numbers and the kids actually laugh when teachers or administrators threaten to call home.  They know their parents either won't be reached or won't care. I know I have a parent who claims her child will be punished but this same kid also tells me he knows how to pester his mom so that she relents and lets him do whatever he wants.  [/quote]

I don't get it, can't the principal first suspend them, and then later move to expel them if they continue the disorder/yelling/fighting? I thought the rules are pretty clear in the student handbooks. Doesn't the principal have the authority to do that? I'm not seeing how their hands are tied down.[/quote]

If they are a minority it is almost impossible to suspend.  The school documented too many racial disparities in incidents (mean more blacks than whites) so many of them go undocumented now.  That way the numbers look more even. [/quote]

Ok so then they are actually suspending them, but just not documenting it. Minority or not, I'm pretty sure the principal has the sole authority to suspend/expel if they are actually disrupting students and teachers and taking away school resources.[/quote]

Administrator here - you have to document suspensions and they must be approved by my director.  PP are correct, if the student is a minority they most likely won't be suspended unless they hit a staff member or the victim's parent will raise a fuss.  If it's a repeat offender my director is even less inclined to grant me the suspension.  It's INSANE![/quote]

And this is exactly why the kids who are acting out in this way aren’t facing consequences. The decision is made by a person sitting in an office who hasn’t actually worked with students in years if not decades. And they sure as hell don’t find themselves being abused by children every single day to understand what that feels like and they also don’t have to see the faces of the other children in the class they’re impacting. They’re purely data points. Nothing more.

And if the student is African American (or maybe Hispanic but only sometimes) then there’s pretty much a 100% chance there won’t be any consequence. Parents will ignore every type of communication we try to initiate with them about concerns and ignore every effort we make to engage them to try to collaborate, but the second their kid does something serious like initiate a fight then they’re in the office guns blazing threatening to sue the school system for discrimination against their kid. So the county’s solution is to not suspend students of color so that they can *celebrate* the data that shows that suspension rates are down and they all congratulate each other and pat themselves on the back for a job well done while they themselves are as far away from these kids as possible! Yay!

I was assaulted both verbally and physically by a student recently and the student faced no consequence. The principal found it to be more important to maintain their buddy buddy relationship with the student so that the student doesn’t treat them like they do all the other adults in the building. Instead I was asked what I did or didn’t do to cause the student to hit me. This was said in front of the student. I’m trying to get out after this year if I can make it until then. [/quote]

This is telling, because it suggests to me the school system is corrupt at the principal level and above. How can a principal allow this to happen to their teachers? I know that teachers that speak up are at fear of losing their job, but it is completely unacceptable to ignore verbal and physical abuse. This is a clear line that the principal needs to draw and initiate suspension, followed by expulsion if repeated. Multiple posts here are suggesting that they don't want to do that because it would look bad in the books and they don't want inconvenient data points. But that is exactly what full blown corruption is.

Teachers and others, what can we as parents do to help here? Are there options for parents to come together and help the teachers take back their school? If multiple parents at schools organize and protest when things like this happen, it should result in pressure on the principal to do the right thing. I definitely think that parents as a group need to make the principal accountable through any means, including legal action if necessary. If the principal is not assigning consequences to threats or violence against teachers (never mind other kids), they are not promoting a safe environment. If teachers have to worry about safety, and they cannot speak up for what's right, who else can do it but the parents?[/quote]

As a teacher, I really appreciate parents like you. Maybe I've been in the system for too long and have seen too many things happen like this, but in my experience something like this will just come back to bite teachers. The BOE, central office and school administrators will find a way to put it all on teachers. They will NEVER take accountability for putting teachers in this position. They also know how to spin public opinion of teachers so we'll all just wind up looking like uncaring, incompetent, greedy people. It's lose lose because the corruption is so pervasive.

I've had the opportunity to be on committees with BOE members in attendance and central office staff serving on the committees. Without fail, they *all* are self-serving and have their own agendas. Every single one of the BOE members have higher political aspirations or other agendas to further their own careers. Central office administrators are also politicians in training. They really don't give a crap about the people working under them, and will absolutely throw teachers under the bus if it means preserving their own agendas. No sweat off their back because they know the public will buy whatever they're selling. Just look at how most of the people on this site write about teachers--MCPS will know exactly how to spin it to turn the public against teachers instead of addressing the root cause of the issue and the corruption surrounding it. [/quote]

I think your description suggests that many teachers have already given up. To me this is sad because it means things will not get any better.[b] But I want to reiterate that most parents have minimal issues with teachers as compared to the administration running the schools.[/b] I think this is a fact based on all the data on these boards. This is why parents (not teachers) need to spearhead movements to empower teachers and work for what is right in schools, starting with their own schools. Mobilized parents are the ONLY group that the high ups running the school are afraid of.

I don't think you should give up here. I want to come back to my earlier example of Haycock Elementary in VA: One large reason they were able to push out the principal was because many great teachers there did not agree to the types of changes he wanted to enforce (related to watering down excellent programs that had proven themselves over time, etc.). Many veteran teachers spoke out and even announced they would leave. The parent group [b]respected and stood with the teachers[/b] on this issue. It is not the principal's right to make a [i]teaching [/i]decision on behalf of the teachers and without teacher support. Because they had a good partnership with teachers, the parent group was able to make themselves heard and call out the issues. Now, I realize that this example is pretty ideal and the level of support for teachers combined with driven parents is NOT found at every school, but I don't see why we can't take small steps in that direction for every school. [b]The community (teachers and parents) need to come together as a team, not only because it benefits children and serves the public, but it also can prevent things from slipping from bad to worse at schools.[/b][/quote]

I'm a parent and I agree with this 100%.  I feel this way for sure.

We have had some violent episodes and the teachers have expressed that parents need to go to admin because the teachers felt they had no voice.  [/quote]

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