I had to set a mental line in the sand this year: if I am directly threatened or if there is ever a gun in my school, I’m out, even though I’m within ten years of retirement. I’d rather work an extra ten or fifteen years in another field than continue to work as an educator in those conditions.

I’m expecting this is a when it happens and not an if it happens situation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today a teacher I work with got into an altercation with a kid in n the hallway and the kid threatened to hold her down and rape her. Kid got one day’s suspension. He has high functioning autism, but he is also in the gifted program and takes all Gen Ed classes.
This kind of B.S. seriously makes me want to leave the profession.

Give the kid a break. He’s autistic!

No, he does not get a break. We have to stop excusing this garbage. If he can disrespect and environment and one of its' employees in such a cavalier manner, he should not be in that environment. This is a parent problem, not this teacher's problem.

....and I should clarify that I meant "threaten a teacher with anything, much less rape"

Anonymous wrote:As a former teacher, the big issue is just that teachers have no influence on how things get sorted out.

In elementary school, there are all kinds of transgressions that just get corrected and let go. We’ve all been hit by an upset kindergartener or threatened by a 3rd grader trying something out. That’s part of the job. The problem is there isn’t a good way to catch escalation and teachers’ judgments about who is really threatening aren’t respected. Two middle schoolers could threaten to rape me and one is a good kid who was upset or didn’t have a filter and was trying something they’ve heard, and one could be a very real threat from someone physically big enough to hurt me and I could be genuinely scared. The system is going to treat both the same.

What the actual F? No good kid would threaten a teacher. Period. Full stop! We are so f-ed as a nation if people think this is nbd.

Not okay. I don't care if the kid is 5, if the kid is a middle or high schooler with autism or any other disability. That is a serious threat. I was a teacher until recently when a kid threatened me and I had enough and quit. I wouldn't call police on a 5 year old (unless a weapon was involved) but a middle school kid threatening to rape me? You bet I'd call police. And hire a lawyer.

Kids that make threats should be on a 3 strikes plan. Third time, you get sent to some special school for dangerous wackos. The school districts should start budgeting for these facilities NOW.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today a teacher I work with got into an altercation with a kid in n the hallway and the kid threatened to hold her down and rape her. Kid got one day’s suspension. He has high functioning autism, but he is also in the gifted program and takes all Gen Ed classes.
This kind of B.S. seriously makes me want to leave the profession.

Give the kid a break. He’s autistic!

Hopefully the teacher will get a break from parents when she quits mid year.

Anonymous wrote:DW and I are both teachers. This type of thing really isn’t that uncommon, even from kids who don’t have autism.

Same. Most teachers where I teach have been threatened and most of the threats come from general ed students.

DW and I are both teachers. This type of thing really isn’t that uncommon, even from kids who don’t have autism.

No it’s not okay. Did OP say this kid is 12? I’m a middle school teacher and some of my male students are over 6’ tall and shave every day including a few of the 7th graders. They could easily overpower me physically. Making a statement like that in public could have horrible results for this kid. A random stranger is not going to excuse it because he has a disability and neither will an employer, significant other, or university. Hopefully the parents take it more seriously than the school does and get him help.

This makes me very sad.
There is something really wrong if someone thinks this is ok or should be allowed
In theory something is really messed up with his home life or the environment he is in, in practice adults need to step in make a stop to this kind of behavior right now

As a former teacher, the big issue is just that teachers have no influence on how things get sorted out.

In elementary school, there are all kinds of transgressions that just get corrected and let go. We’ve all been hit by an upset kindergartener or threatened by a 3rd grader trying something out. That’s part of the job. The problem is there isn’t a good way to catch escalation and teachers’ judgments about who is really threatening aren’t respected. Two middle schoolers could threaten to rape me and one is a good kid who was upset or didn’t have a filter and was trying something they’ve heard, and one could be a very real threat from someone physically big enough to hurt me and I could be genuinely scared. The system is going to treat both the same.

Anonymous wrote:I live in a bubble. How would he even know about rape?!?

You don’t live in a bubble. You don’t live on planet Earth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think he would actually do it? Because I don’t think so.
That’s what HFA is: sometimes they don’t know what they are saying really.

I think he understood exactly what he was saying. Would he really do it? Hopefully not

I honestly don’t think so. Either he is bad at controlling his impulses (a typical kid could think that but not say it out loud) or he doesn’t quite understand the seriousness of saying it out loud.
If he hasn’t been violent, he needs a really good talk about how these things are really too serious to say out loud. We all have horrible thoughts, we just learned to control them (some people don’t even admit to themselves they have thoughts and feelings that are not acceptable).

It is not typical to even think about raping someone.

First, you probably aren’t a man or a woman with those fantasies. Second, the student probably doesn’t really know what he is talking about.

Middle Schoolers are well aware of what rape is. And this kid is also gifted.

Anonymous wrote:I know lots of autistic kids and none of them would say something like that. He should be suspended at least a week, referrred for additional counseling services and removed from her classroom (unless the teacher really didn’t want him removed).

OP here. He’s not in her class. This happened in the hallways when she was reprimanding him for misbehavior. My issue is the message it sends to other kids when they see a student say something like that to a teacher and only get a one day suspension.
We already commonly have students cursing teachers out and only getting a slap on the wrist.