Insensitivity is a punishable offense in Massachusetts
Student suspended over ‘gay’ remark
16 year-old Chris Carreiro, a student at Joseph Case High School in the Swansea School District, was suspended for a day for saying his teacher was acting ‘gay’.
Carreiro said he was helping a friend with books, and was late for computer class. The teacher sent him to the guidance office for tardiness, he said.
In the guidance office, he told counselor Edward Pettine that the teacher was “being gay,” but not that the teacher actually was gay.
“There’s a difference,” Carreiro said. “There was no homosexual thing. I wasn’t using profanity.”
Carreiro said the guidance counselor shouted at him, and dismissed him from the office. He later found out that he was suspended, and that Pettine wanted him to serve detention.
A school administrator commented that Carreiro was punished for more than using the word ‘gay’ but did not reveal what these items might be. Paperwork sent home to Carreiro’s parents mention only “inappropriate language and behavior.” Sounds more like a cop-out because they realized they went way overboard in punishing a student for stating his opinion.
The school and district websites lack any contact information but email for superintendent Stephan Flanagan was found on the state DOE site.
(Tip credit to Precinct 333 and Opinion Journal)
Dating could be risky here too, given the fragile sensitivity of the law.
Updated Guidelines for Schools on Addressing Teen Dating Violence:
http://www.doe.mass.edu/hssss/tdv/toc.html
Btw, a principal is not allowed to expell as student who assaults another student but, assaulting a teacher is different.
Another article says this kid interns at a radio station and after his one-day suspension he got on the radio station and raised holy hell about the whole situation.
The school probably hopes he’ll shut up and it will all go away.
I can’t help recalling how someone asked Jesse Helms if he’d ever visited a communist country, and he replied, “I’ve been to Massachussetts.”
For SWP — the punishment for assaulting a teacher is because there is a federal law requiring it. This is because in many schools, teachers were assaulted and discouraged by the school or BOE from filing charges by having their jobs threatened. The federal law made that situation a non-issue by requiring action. Now, much like laws to protect whistleblowers, teachers don’t face losing their jobs if students assault them and the teacher takes legal action.
And many schools expel kids for assaulting teachers — if this school just suspends them, they are getting off easy.
By the way, the federal law includes when kids threaten teachers. When it first passed, we had signs hanging up all over our school with information about the law so the kids would be aware of it.
No, kids shouldn’t be allowed to assault and threaten other kids. But parents don’t usually have someone holding their jobs over their heads to keep them from filing charges.
I know some of you say teachers shouldn’t teach if they are afraid of students, but teachers shouldn’t be required hang up their rights to an expectation of safety when they enter the school building any more than students should be expected to. EVERYONE should be safe at school.
There’s also a compelling reason to come down harder for an assault on a teacher than on a fellow student - just like tougher penalties for killing a cop than a civilian. The teachers are partially charged with keeping order in the school. When an individual shows a willingness to directly attack an authority figure charged with keeping the peace, and protecting the rights of others, that individual is a greater threat than one who attacks someone of equivalent lack of authority to the attacker.
CJ, There is a big difference between not expelling a kid because adult judgement determined it was unwise and NOT BEING ALLOWED to expell a student. Bullying is a big problem in school and probaly a common factor in most of the school shootings. Let’s face it more kids die because they are killed by other student, or commit suicide than teachers. I dislike comparing teachers to cops, most teachers don’t have nearly the authority or desire to expell a kid.
Often there are good solutions for a large number of these kids, but the extreme measures that are required to justify resource for normal behavior. Small problems are often not addressed because it doesn’t fit the ‘method’ or policy. We need to find out what works for kids, and we’re not doing that.
CJ, I’ve looked at a lot of the violence statistics lately. In the worst schools teachers are victimized 10-15% of the reported assaults, most of the time it’s less than 1%. I do believe kids understand they can ‘get away’ with hurting another kid. I am also certain administrators and teachers will arrange for violent kids to target a teacher or a student they don’t like. It’s very corrupt and hard to imagine.
I live near the Mall that was pelleted by an assault rifle. The adult man, 24, was discribed by a schoolmate as the kind of kid you would pick on in school. I don’t understand that term, I don’t enjoy picking on someone. From the statistic evidence we do not have a handle on this. If we stigmatize kids when we find them, they may be ostracized. I do not believe there is any evidence that society benefits when we create permanent records on young children. If these problem brought these kids help and encouragement in thoughtful and discrete way that produced concrete success, I’d be all for it.