Anonymous wrote:OP here. Middle schooler eating during class, clearly trying to hide food.
Curious what others think, and if it would change your opinion if it had been done before, student reprimanded, etc.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:With a middle schooler who knew he/she was breaking the rule? Teacher absolutely should have thrown out food to make a point. You should be upset with your child for being so disrespectful in school.
Thanks. I am OP and actually the teacher in the scenario. I threw out food twice this week (only times it's happened this whole school year).
Student 1 has a history of eating in many classes, knows it's not permitted, does no classwork, gets detention, no interventions have helped.
Student 2 has not done it before but knows it's against the rules, and has had other regular disrespectful behavior/ challenging me in the classroom.
No, I don't have any large scale classroom management issues. Thankfully, this week was an anomaly. At least one of the times was after lunch, and I wouldn't have done it if it was a hunger situation or lunch food (they were small bags of chips).
You sound judgemental to the point of ignorance. Kids grow at different rates and have different needs than you. They might be annoying kids but please remember that they are kids and not adults. For whatever reason they are hungry and you should put a little more thought and compassion into your thinking here besides 'classroom management'.
Anonymous wrote:Eh! I remember way back in school also eating sometimes during class. It was not allowed, so I'd sneak it in. I was hungry!!!! Super hungry! Kids get through growth spurts, especially in middle school. If the teacher threw food away because student was eating at not allocated time, I would be angry. He / she did not earn, prepare or pack that food to throw it away. I did. Tell the student to put it away, call parents or whatever, but don't throw away my money and labor.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I had a student who was a diabetic and refused to take his medication.
I've taken candies and cookies out of his hand and thrown them out after watching him go into diabetic shock in the hallway. (middle schooler)
His mother complained to the school once...but stopped when we (teachers) told her that her son isn't taking his medication during the school day (the entire grade level team was made aware) and that we are trying our best to keep her from having to pick him up from a hospital vs at school at the end of the day due to his poor decision making skills.
Diabetic shock that comes on suddenly is caused by low blood sugar, not high. You could have killed this child.
How can you have known that he wasn't taking his medication (do you mean insulin?) without the mother knowing. It would have been a violation of federal law for the nurse to tell you, and a violation of ethics for the nurse not to tell the mom.
A kid with diabetes is going to need a detailed action plan, not teachers playing vigilante in the hallway.
I'll tell you how we knew--we'd send him to the nurse to take his meds and we'd get phone calls twenty minutes later asking where was said student. We'd ask said student if he went to see the nurse and he refused. Once we told Mom what he was doing...she was LIVID. The next grade had the same issue--he was deliberately eating things he wasn't supposed to be eating. It was well known throughout the school to keep an eye out on said kid because he was refusing his meds.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I had a student who was a diabetic and refused to take his medication.
I've taken candies and cookies out of his hand and thrown them out after watching him go into diabetic shock in the hallway. (middle schooler)
His mother complained to the school once...but stopped when we (teachers) told her that her son isn't taking his medication during the school day (the entire grade level team was made aware) and that we are trying our best to keep her from having to pick him up from a hospital vs at school at the end of the day due to his poor decision making skills.
Diabetic shock that comes on suddenly is caused by low blood sugar, not high. You could have killed this child.
How can you have known that he wasn't taking his medication (do you mean insulin?) without the mother knowing. It would have been a violation of federal law for the nurse to tell you, and a violation of ethics for the nurse not to tell the mom.
A kid with diabetes is going to need a detailed action plan, not teachers playing vigilante in the hallway.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Mother of several current and former middle schoolers here. My children had a very late lunch during middle school, and were starving by the time they finally got to eat. In addition, my sons grew about 8 to 12 inches during middle school, and were constantly hungry, seemingly starving, by the time they got home from school. I also wish the school would be more accommodating about quietly eating snacks during the day.
If you worked in a school with rats like mine, you'd change your tune. I am leaving now because the rats come out after the building being totally quiet for about 30 mins. These are rats, not mice. We now have a policy where nobody is allowed to eat anywhere except the cafeteria and the faculty lounge.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:With a middle schooler who knew he/she was breaking the rule? Teacher absolutely should have thrown out food to make a point. You should be upset with your child for being so disrespectful in school.
Thanks. I am OP and actually the teacher in the scenario. I threw out food twice this week (only times it's happened this whole school year).
Student 1 has a history of eating in many classes, knows it's not permitted, does no classwork, gets detention, no interventions have helped.
Student 2 has not done it before but knows it's against the rules, and has had other regular disrespectful behavior/ challenging me in the classroom.
No, I don't have any large scale classroom management issues. Thankfully, this week was an anomaly. At least one of the times was after lunch, and I wouldn't have done it if it was a hunger situation or lunch food (they were small bags of chips).
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I had a student who was a diabetic and refused to take his medication.
I've taken candies and cookies out of his hand and thrown them out after watching him go into diabetic shock in the hallway. (middle schooler)
His mother complained to the school once...but stopped when we (teachers) told her that her son isn't taking his medication during the school day (the entire grade level team was made aware) and that we are trying our best to keep her from having to pick him up from a hospital vs at school at the end of the day due to his poor decision making skills.
Diabetic shock that comes on suddenly is caused by low blood sugar, not high. You could have killed this child.
How can you have known that he wasn't taking his medication (do you mean insulin?) without the mother knowing. It would have been a violation of federal law for the nurse to tell you, and a violation of ethics for the nurse not to tell the mom.
A kid with diabetes is going to need a detailed action plan, not teachers playing vigilante in the hallway.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is a question where the circumstances matter.
If my child is eating in class, and it is not time to be eating, then I expect and support the teacher in requiring my child to turn over the food to be thrown away or for the teacher to require that my child get up and throw away the food. If my child leaves food in a desk or in a cubbie and it is perishable food then, again, yes, the teacher should throw it away.
Give some background, OP, otherwise I think you're just trying to stir up trouble and pick a fight with your kid's teacher.
I disagree with the bolded. If the student is eating at an inappropriate time, then by all means make the kid go and put it away/back in their bag/in their lunchbox, but why would you insist that it be thrown away?