Student expelled for cursing back at teacher
Maloney student and mom say penalty is excessive
Mark Padilla, 17, has been expelled from Francis T. Maloney High School [Meriden School District] for 180 days following a closed door school council vote. Padilla had been part of a profanity strewn argument with assistant track coach Thomas Pepe.
On May 4, Mark Padilla said he was doing exercises at track practice when Pepe, the assistant coach, came over to help the boys with their starting positions. Padilla said Pepe was holding a high jump pole at the time. Padilla made a suggestion to Pepe and the coach started screaming at him to “shut the fâ€â€- up” and “get the fâ€â€- away,” he said. The student responded, and the two were swearing at each other. Padilla said he felt threatened as Pepe held up the pole and stared at him.
Padilla was suspended for 10 days pending an expulsion hearing. Only three out of eight members of the school board attended that session. The motion to expel was put forward by Mark Hughes and seconded by Roy Gooding. William Lutz, the last board member in attendance, had verbally accused Padilla of inappropriately touching a female student. Although the actual votes of the three were not recorded it is a safe assumption that all three voted to expel.
In the documents for the expulsion, Mark and Madeline Padilla say Mark Padilla’s words were twisted and the ruling was “unjust.” Mark Padilla said the document failed to mention that he was provoked. He said there are even student witnesses to prove this, but he declined to name them.
“I was wrong, but they made it worse than it was,” Mark Padilla said.
Madeline Padilla said the pair directed their questions regarding the documents to Jeffrey Villar, associate school superintendent for instruction, and School Superintendent Mary Noonan Cortright, but it did not help.
Pepe was also punished for the argument. He was suspended for one day by the same board that expelled Padilla.
Contact information:
School Board Treasurer Roy Gooding
The following email addresses were extrapolated using the Meriden email format and may not be functional:
School Board member Bill Lutz or William Lutz
School Board member Mark Hughes
Principal Greg P. Shugrue
10 days for the student, then expulsion, 1
day suspension for the assistant coach…
sounds fair to me (insert heavy sarcasm here)!
As long as schools are not expecting, setting and holding their staff to the same rules and standards as the students, we are going to keep hearing about cases like this!
Is this school board familiar with the word ‘quorum?’
On the other hand, the kid claims he has witnesses, but refuses to name them. If you don’t offer any real defense, then you’re pleading guilty.
He didn’t reveal the names of the witnesses to the news reporter. The school should know pretty much exactly who witnessed the event.
We could all solve this trigger happy approach to explusions for blowing your nose in the wrong direction quite simply. Give the parents full vouchers for the cost of the kids education during expulsion and let them go where they want. All of a sudden we’d see a bit more humane rational reasonable approach to the whole thing as school districts contemplate losing the 8-11K + they say it takes to educate a kid each year.
AMEN, Mary Shea
What kind of school board can decide anytihng with only 3 of 8 members there? Are we sure this story is correct? This doesn’t sound right…
Mary Shea — I like it, I love it, I want some more of it.
Mary Shea, that would be great. There’d be parents stuffing knives and aspirin in their kids pockets, saying, “now be sure to take these out in front of a teacher.”
I hated public school when I was in high school (20 years ago). Although I got good grades in most classes, I had a tough time learning algebra, and my grades in that class weren’t so stellar. My parents paid good money for me to have one-on-one tutoring. I got 100% on the next exam, plus got the bonus points. The teacher, a short, fat, troll of a man, accused me of cheating in front of the rest of the class. I told him to go F— himself. I then walked myself down to the Assistant Principal’s office and told him what I had done. He laughed, and then told me I got to have a “day off” the next day in in-school-suspension. He further told me that since he was only giving me ISS, it would not go in my record, as long as I didn’t do it again. When I got to ISS the next day, the supervising teacher knew about what happened, and told me I should have picked my words better, but otherwise didn’t blame me for losing my cool at such an accusation. He was kind and nonjudgmental. The algebra teacher knew he was wrong and apologized when I got back to class. I apologized for the outburst. What the heck happened to those days when situations were dealt with on their merits in an appropriate way where everybody comes away a better person?
Oversized classrooms, overworked teachers, lawsuit happy parents, loud mouther self-entitled students & school shootings.
Lets not forget, Gutless administrators, Over-powerful teachers unions, Bad government policy, made worse by pathetic state policy, Politicians need for popularity, Over worked under paid and often to lazy parents, a system of government that no longer gives parents as many efficient ways of disciplining children, parents that just dont want to discipline their children, standardized testing, Staff that is drunk on power, one ten and one fifteen minute recess a day PE just two days a week, The constant urge of school boards to take the fun out of school, and sick preference for putting students often under the age of ten on highly addictive mind altering and physically damaging drugs instead of letting them have recesses to burn off their excess energy. Lets not forget the feminist movement who has made schools far more intimidating for boys. Lets not forget teachers whose seem to think they need more money for the ten months out of the year they work, the average teachers salary is some where around 47,000. If you add two more months that’s about 55,000 a year, and keep in mind that is the average. Allot of teachers are retiring which would lower that total wouldn’t it.
Now that’s not that bad for having a BA, and a certificate.
I dont know what principles make by I bet it probably doubles that.
The cowards that sit in positions of authority two afraid of being sued by their own shadow to make a stand or a decision for that matter. Much safer for them to just call the police and the courts deal with it. Or expel the kid for being a kid. The school board wont stop you, they need the votes of the parents and if this id can look like a threat than the gullible will think he is and thank us for keeping the bad element away from there precious little angle who has probably done far worse than the “Honor student†that just got arrested. Hey I have a question how come every body is a good kid or an honor student. I don’t see any repots of the troubled teens getting arrested for stupid things. I know they have. But why don’t they get any media time. Its because they are not worth it isn’t it.
Oh and finally lets not forget parents who have turned a blind eye to it all, not participating not volunteering not being there to make sure that their children’s best interest in being taken into account. They would rather sue for money then get involved with policy.
“…lets not forget parents who have turned a blind eye to it all, not participating not volunteering not being there to make sure that their children’s best interest in being taken into account…”
Gee, the last time I did that, my son got really stoked up about a project and did a lot of research. Unfortunately, what my son learned conflicted with what the teacher was told to teach, so he told my son to “shut up” in front of his peers. We homeschool now.
The basic attitude of public schools is:
1. Don’t question our curriculum.
2. Don’t question our discipline policies.
3. Don’t question the competence of our teachers.
4. Don’t question the appropriateness of books in our libraries or reading lists.
5. But as long you don’t question anything, the parent is welcome to participate in the academic process, and by the way, it’s the parent’s fault if the kid isn’t learning.
After all, we’re “professionals,” you’re just a dumb parent.
As anyone who’s been bombarded by a levy campaign knows, that can be summed up as
“Give us your kids, and your wallet, then go sit down and shut up and leave us alone.”
Travis,
You’re not a teacher, are you?
The average salary you speak of is average fro two reasons:
1. The average teacher has been in the system for quite a number of years. There is a shortage of new teachers because conditions are so bad. That skews the numbers to show average salary toward the high middle to end of career.
2. Teachers don’t earn that kind of money until they have been in the system for a while or get a Master’s degree. Don’t kid yourself. You can’t just get a BA and stay there: you’ll be _expected_ to continue your education and get a masters.
Let’s break it down for Travis the First Year Teacher. You’ve got your BA in History and a Secondary Education certificate. You land a teaching job with a high school and a salary that starts at 36,000 which is not too bad for a first year teacher. But, you’ll be making a bit more… you see, in order to land your contract, you had to offer to sponsor the boy’s bowling team. That’s how the game is played, friend. Your weekends are shot and some of your evenings, but don’t worry, the school will compensate you with a cool $600 big ones on your salary for the trouble. It probably isn’t worth the trouble to be a bowling coach, but no one else wants to do it and you’re the new guy. In addition, you’ll get one planning period per day to plan your lessons. You will never be able to use this time to plan lessons. Students will have issues, you will have to call parents about disciplinary issues (the vice principal will pawn it off on you), parents will want to confront you about their children’s grades and want to know why you are such a poor teacher. You’ll have to spend time as a hall monitor and watching the bathrooms, too. One day a week, you’ll be expected to have lunch duty as well. You’ll be expected to be early to school twice a week for faculty meetings, and you’ll be expected to stay late most days until four or five for meetings or planning or to deal with students, parents, or to monitor detentions that you give out. After you’re done with that, you’ll go home and grade papers in the evenings and record the grades. You’re average workday will be approximately twelve hours. During the two months off in the summer, if you renew your contract with the school, you’ll have several work related sessions to attend as well. You’ll be pressed by the administration to do things, you’ll be pressed by parents, and you’ll be pressed by the state legislature. You won’t be able to afford your own place to live, so you’ll have a roommate. You won’t calculate your hourly wage because you know that if you do, it’ll just depress the hell out of you. Each year, even though most of it sucks, you’ll connect with a kid and make a difference – a real difference. That’s why you’re here.
The one day, you’ll read a post on a bitch-board about how easy it is to be a teacher and how the salary isn’t bad for just having a BA. You’ll fire off a pissy e-mail and go back to your summer work on your Master’s degree… because you have to. The principals, parents and legislators require a higher standard from you, even if all they want to do is complain about you.
Question: What would have happened if the student had held up a pole and the teacher “felt threatened” - I would bet on 3 police cars, 6 officers and a pair of handcuffs all as a preview for a trip to the local jail. 1 day suspension for what could be attempted battery (or assault depending on the jurisdiction).
As noted above - there seems to be something more to this story
Sorry to hear you’re sad sad story “GetsIt”. But let me enlighten you to a few other real world facts based on jobs that my family has had:
Art Director: Working for major company on national campaigns, starting at the entry level - $25,000 (if you’re lucky. Specialized BA and guild memberships required. No two months off AT ALL… salaried job consisting of many very long nights and weekends. Clients calling you at home on your day off because something isn’t “perfect” and you must sacrifice your personal time to get it done on time and on budget. Very nasty and competitive environment. No year long contracts… one goof as small as mistyping a capital “I” and you’re fired with a bad reference.
Tech Support Call Center Supervisor:
required BA in “related field” for advancement. Starting salary of $18,000 per year. No two month vacations. You hear nothing but racial slurs and constant direct attacks on you from anonymous strangers. I mean all day, everyday. If you want to advance you must give up your Saturdays to take in-house seminars on technology and test out with various certifications.
Resident Marine Specialist (major Aquarium):
Requires specialized BA with continuing education toward Doctorat. Starting Salary of $29,000 per year. No time off. Must clean animal feces on a daily basis. Must risk being attacked by wild beasts on a daily basis. Must perform shows with the animals. Must sacrifice weekends to help attend to injured animals.
Finally, I’m sorry but if you can’t manage to live on your own on $36,000 a year then I am very glad you aren’t teaching my children how to balance a check book. That’s really pathetic. Almost every carear.. not job, but carear such as teaching IS requires huge sacrifices in your life. The majority of people who choose a life’s work rise to the occasion of these challenges, but it seems that teachers do nothing nothing but complain about the conditions of their chosen profession without considering what other people must go through to make a living in their lives doing what they love. If it’s such a bad job that it requires you to publicly complain about it, then I urge you to seriously reconsider why you are doing it. If it’s about a paycheck that doesn’t seem to be living up to your expectations… run far, run fast. If you do it because you want to make a difference it the lives of young people then stop complaining, suck it up and do what you must to live how you want.
I would have loved a $36K salary with a BA just out of college. Not to mention my sister, a teacher, got all of her student loans forgiven because she taught in a rural (economically-challenged) district. So, while she and her husband (also a teacher) use their summer vacation to finalize plans on their half-million dollar custom home … tell me again about how teachers are impoverished?
Jasper, V the K,
You saved me a lot of time with your posts and I thank you for it.
Has anyone verified this story??? It seems awfully one sided.
anyone??? anyone???? Thought not!
Unfortunately we only have as much information as the newspaper article gives us. Most scholastic items never receive a follow-up in the news. School officials will generally not respond with anything except “no comment”, as they are generally required to by law.
Occassionally a person with personal knowledge of a story will comment to explain or clarify a story. This is greatly appreciated.
We are put in a position where we have to make two very large assumptions:
1) The media attempts to portray both sides of a story in accordance with good journalism practice.
2) The media reports accurately.
Those are 2 very big assumptions, are they not? My interpretation of the article is that it is not a portrayal of two sides. There are a few questions I would have asked if I were the reporter, even if I couldn’t ask school officials. What was the student’s response when he felt threatened? They quoted the teacher. What were the exact words used by the student? Did the reporter ask for a copy of the student’s record from the family, certainly they have the right to provide this to the media. If the rereporter had this information, she certaonly didn’t use it. They were quick to report that one official waved papers above his head and accused the student of touching a female inaapropriately. Did the reporter ask what these papers were or ask to see them? If they were papers that alluded to a sexual inpropriety, wouldn’t they have been essential to good investigative journalism? Again, this all seems too unsubstantiated.
I am proud to say that I am an ex-teacher. Nobody gets rich from teaching, but it does pay a decent living wage (with a MA, I made mid-thirties, which was more than competitive for entry-level work).
I would like to add to the “conversation” between Travis, GetsIt, and Jasper on this subject only by saying that those salaries are high to attract new teachers to an unattractive field. I taught in a non-union state, and many of my colleagues who had at least ten years or more of experience on me made little more than I did. The only way to truly step up in pay is to go for the lobotomy and become an “administrator.” The careers listed by Jasper probably have an upside on the earning curve missing from civil services like teaching. Anyone who goes into these fields should know this, and no one of any profession, especially teaching, has a absolute right to gripe endlessly about pay.
No problem gets solved by throwing money at it, even to increase teachers’ salaries, and public schools, like all bureaucracies, seem to grow all the more inefficient for each additional dollar squandered. One estimate for per-pupil expenditure is $11,000 per year. For that amount of money, one could send his son or daughter to a good private school, which is what I intend to do for my daughter because, having once been a part of the public school system, I know that education is probably the last priority of those in charge (the top priority is that of any bureaucracy — to self-sustain and grow the system itself). I guess I’m kind of like a butcher who has lost the taste for steak.
Having written all of that, I’ll try to get back to the point of the original article. We have all just witnessed “damage control” on the part of the school system. The system did not respond in a sensible way, but are any of you really surprised?
Once the coach made the decision to use profanity, he should have been ready to be on the receiving end of it. To refer the student for administrative discipline is nothing less than a complete breach of the coach-athelete relationship in this instance. That would be the end of it were it up to any of us.
However, schools are not run by people. They are run by policies such as “Zero Tolerance” that have become monsters unleashed by the knee-jerk reactions of administrations as a way to avoid responsibility for poor judgement. As difficult as it is for students to deal with this system (and I agree that the student should never have been expelled once that coach drew “first blood”), it is absolutely maddening for those who work in schools to deal with it as an integral part of a career. Most of us like to teach, but education is no longer the point of public schools.
The student mentioned was expelled for 1 term not for 180 days. Also he was often in trouble in school including his most recent problem when he touched a female student inappropriately.
A-Teacher,
Where did you find that information? Is that the length of the expulsion or when he can return?
For GetsIt:
Let me outline my job for you and see if you’d prefer it:
While I have no degree, most of my colleagues have advanced degrees in math and science. I am an exception. That said; all of the people in my industry have to go to school on a constant basis for their entire career. I study harder now than I did in college (and I was an A student in college - I left for money, not out of laziness).
I work under enormous pressure with people that are on average losing a million dollars for every eight minutes that passes until I correct their problem. It can take DAYS to correct a problem. For obvious reasons, these people are very angry and they regularly take this out on my colleagues and me.
I am on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and on a regular basis will not sleep for three days at a time. I am called upon to fly around the country to perform emergency services for clients. My after hours work regularly ruins family gatherings, vacations, dinners out, and time spent with my kids.
I am under sufficient stress that my doctor is considering prescribing Xanax for me. My wife, who is in the same field, had a heart attack last year at age 37…her cholesterol and other indicators are fine, and her cardiologist was baffled until he found out what she does for a living. Oh yeah, we also have no job security. I once was laid off from a job two weeks after starting the job (having quit another job to get there).
What do I do for a living?
Technical support.
Things are tough all over GetsIt. I’d trade my job for that of a teacher. You at least have opportunities for long term job security. How many professions out there actually have people that can stay in the same job for 30 years?
You can count them on the fingers of one tire.
…so don’t get self righteous and tell me about how rough things are for you. You have great benefits, a good salary, job security, and a union that makes your job virtually bullet proof.
Sub
“We are put in a position where we have to make two very large assumptions:
1) The media attempts to portray both sides of a story in accordance with good journalism practice.
2) The media reports accurately.”
Jim, you’ve a wicked sense of humor.
It would seem to me the primary motive now-a-days
seems to be “What’s in it for me and don”t you dare invade my space!” Really admirable human characteristics………..