Zero tolerance only flows downhill
Indian River school board won’t suspend teacher for slapping student
Katherine Cairns, an art teacher at Vero Beach High School in the School District of Indian River County, had an encounter with a willful student. The girl screamed at her when Cairns was trying to restore order in the bathroom and Cairns slapped the girl in the face. Schools Superintendent Tom Maher recommended a ten day unpaid suspension for striking a student. The School Board voted 3-2 to ignore the recommendation. Why?
Board member Kathryn Wilson said she was concerned about the students in Cairns’ class not being able to get work done because of the suspension. She said she wanted to see Cairns back in the classroom.
Cairns shouldn’t be punished because her absence harms the students? So a person is not responsible for their actions if punishing the person affects others. Interesting concept.
Board member Lenora Quimby said she did not support the suspension because she was interested in being fair and equitable. Last month, Quimby voted not to expel a student who hit a teacher when the teacher tried to break up a fight. Quimby said the student didn’t mean to hit the teacher, just as Cairns did not mean to hit the student.
Well, no. The teacher in that earlier incident was struck by an unintended blow. Cairns actively slapped a student. The first had no intent, the second had willful intent. They are not at all the same.
Dissenting voters were concerned about what this will say about the school system.
[Vice Chairman Craig] McGarvey said at the end of the meeting he was concerned about the board’s action. The board needs to send a message that violation of district rules will not be tolerated, he said.
…
Teachers and students need to understand there are consequences associated with their actions � whether intentional or accidental, he said.
So what would have happened if the situations were reversed? Vero Beach has a very strongly worded zero tolerance policy. From the Student Handbook:
ZERO TOLERANCE FOR SCHOOL RELATED VIOLENT CRIME
It is essential that schools be safe and orderly to provide environments that foster learning and high academic achievement. … The school district will invoke the most severe consequences provided for in the Code of Student Conduct in dealing with students who engage in violent criminal acts on school property…
Violent criminal acts include, but are not limited to the following offenses; … aggravated battery, battery or aggravated battery on a teacher or other school personnel…
Aggravated battery is when you plan to hit somebody and do so. Simple battery is what this teacher did. Simple battery on a student appears to be exempted by the policy though it is covered if it happens to a teacher.
So, did the Board do the right thing? I think so, but certainly not for the reasons they stated. I think they did the right thing because if my kid was the one screaming at a teacher in the bathroom and the teacher went off and slapped him I would shake the teacher’s hand, just before grounding my kid.
However, from a school discipline point of view as well as following the rules that they themselves have laid down the board has failed miserably.
If more teachers slapped “willful students,” we’d have less discipline problems in our schools. Then we wouldn’t need zero-tolerance policies.
I’ve no problem with the action as it appears to be warranted based on the information given.
Where I do have A MAJOR PROBLEM are the unwarranted actions taken, in the name of zero tolerance, for minor and even non-infractions. What are non-infractions…where a teacher/administrator reads into the rules something that isn’t there.
let a parent do as the teacher did,and see what happens.
Nothing stopping this girl or her parents from bring assault charges against this teacher.
Bull Roarski…..
This teacher shouldn’t suspended for ten days, she should be fired. She should have her certificate to teach pulled until she can demonstrate an ability to control her anger.
She slapped a child in anger, she was unable to control the situation and hit a child - who apparently was not physically attacking her. The teacher was out of control.
The actions of the board are probably on the advise of their attorney. To wit, if they suspend the teacher they would be agreeing she did something wrong and they could get sued for having hired a teacher who did wrong. Guess what, they are probably still going to get sued. And the jury may well take it out on them for not doing the right thing.
At least the cop, who got fired, could be expected to overreact around a weapon, however small it might have been, given that in his line of work he is exposed to a more violent clientle.
Violent Teacher Unpunished
I frequently visit Jim Peacock’s edu-blog Zero Intelligence, where he focuses an alert eye on the follies of schools’ disciplinary policies (the site is named after Zero Tolerance discipline).
Kud…
If I spank my child, I go to jail, but a teacher can slap the same child? I don’t think so.
The law now says teachers don’t hit kids, so they shouldn’t. If the law were different (as it used to be), there would be room for discussion. BUt as things stand, it’s illegal and wrong.
It’s hard to tell but I wonder if the banging and screaming in the bathroom shouldn’t have alerted her to calling the police. These are not small kids and it appears one girl was very aggressive. Banging on the bathroom stall door of an aggressive student was not the brightest move the teacher could make. A truely violent student would have done more than scream. It is counter-productive to think about justice in this circumstance. What the teacher needed to know is whether this child was capable of responding to a non-aggressive request; I guess the answer was no. Instead of keeping a safe distance and asking “What’s going on in there”, she escalated the sitituation and threaten a potentially violent person. Luckily for the teacher the kid wasn’t really violent.
Teachers deal with the public and need to understand when something is a potential threat. The teacher’s response was not safe. The most important thing this teacher needs is training, not because she was out of line; but because she is dealing with the public.
Florida does allow corporal punishment in schools, but more important this sounds like genuine self defense.
“I felt that I was being confronted and my reflex action was a slap,” Cairns wrote. “As soon as that happened, I was shocked. Never before have I ever slapped a student. I was probably as shocked as she was.”
I’ve had my step-daughter straight-up punch me in the face, and I was told, by Child Services, had I hit her back, that I’d be in jail.
WTF is wrong with this picture?
MasterOfPuppets: First off, find out what the law really is in your state. Social workers are prone to lying when the law doesn’t actually match what they want.
It’s illegal, but it certaintly isn’t wrong in my opinion. If my kid was doing that I would the teacher to smack the kid. I don’t think kids get smacked enough nowadays. I am 20, so it isn’t too far back, but when I was a kid and my mom’s backhand was lifted toward my face, I knew to shut the heck up.
Kids these days are spoiled as hell.
The school board is negligent. They are negligent for returning a teacher with impulse control and anger management issues back to the classroom.(I think stress leave is needed) They are also negligent and non-compliant to state law. It is the schools responsibility to call the police on the teacher. Our kids are in trouble and our teachers have to deal with antisocial behavior on a daily basis. Until our School Superintendents make a plan to manage the problem, which enforced consistantly by principals, teachers, lunch ladies, bus drivers and aids, there appears no end in sight for this sort of thing. Our schools desperately need policies and procedures including documentation so we can identify our youngest children who need help. If we can address their needs when they’re young there’s hope to get them turned around before they’re teenagers and their behavior turns chronic. Kathy Framarini, Bully Police Florida - Director kathy.framarini@bullypoliceflorida.org
There’s no reason to suspend a teacher for this. I have seen first hand too many examples of students overstepping the bounds with teachers.
Police officers can carry guns and do whatever they want. Teachers are faced with an equaly unsafe job, yet we can’t even use our hands. In my school I’ve been slapped, punched, thrown down the stairs, stomped by 3 boys (each weighing over 200lb), stabbed, spat on and set on fire.
If the teacher slaps a kid? Big deal!