Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?
Posted by Lisa on 5/11/08

On 5/10/08, questioning wrote:
> Lisa,
>
> I'm not proud of what I said, because I lost my cool and made a
> huge disgrace of myself. I teach and coach at the high school
> level, so this incident was in no way school related.
>
> I was at the store after practice, and I observed a young boy
> who was throwing a temper tantrum, while simultaneously tearing
> items off the store shelf and dumping them on the floor. The
> child's mother would not let him have a candy bar, but did
> nothing to reprimand the child.
>
> I turned to the boy and said "If you were my kid, I would kick
> your little ass and break your neck." I would never break a
> child's neck; my comment was purely intended to imply that my
> own child would be physically disciplined, not meant to be a
> literal comment. Just for the record, I've never had a physical
> or verbal confrontation with a student, so I don't want folks
> here implying that I have anger management issues. I simply got
> tired of seeing children act inappropriate in public, but in
> retrospect I could have handled myself much better.
>
> The police were called, but no charges were filed. The parent
> and another adult in the store insisted that I be terminated, as
> I was "unfit" to teach the children of the community, despite a
> stellar reputation in the classroom and working with kids in our
> athletic program.
>
> I do not have tenure and my contract was not renewed. There
> were no specific reasons given. There is nothing the union can
> do, as the district representative herself said that while she
> respects me as a person, she even agreed with the district's
> decision on this one.
>>
>> I missed your original series of posts.
>>
>> What did you do or say to be "over the top"?
>>
>> Did you ever identify in what state this took place?
>>
>> Did this happen in a Bible belt community?
>>
>> Is your state a "right to work" state?
>>
>> Are the teachers unionized?
>>
>> Are you able to challenge your nonrenewal in court?
>>
>> I can't imagine a teacher's verbal reprimand of a misbehaving
>> child in a grocery store to be tantamount to career suicide.


Your "rights" in this matter depend on what state this incident
had occurred.

Are you able to publicly identify the state?

Write a joint letter to the superintendent and school board and
request a statement of reasons for the nonrenewal.

Write to the union president, and request formal representation
to challenge the nonrenewal decision. It's not relevant what the
district representative said to you off the cuff. Assuming that
you've been a dues-paying member in good standing, you're
entitled to competent representation from your union, which, most
likely, is one of the local affiliates of the AFL-CIO.

O.K., so your remark was said out of anger, and was
inappropriate. But, other teachers have done far worse, though,
including acting grossly inappropriately and unprofessionally in
the classroom, during an angry moment, or on a generally "bad
day," and were neither terminated nor nonrenewed. Some were
perhaps fined, or suspended without pay for a while, after an
administrative hearing, but were ultimately returned to the
classroom.

Therefore, you ought to research the judicial decisions in your
state relating to teacher dismissals and nonrenewals.

Here's an interesting decision from the United States Court of
Appeals, Sixth Circuit, relating to corporal punishment that was
administered by an eighth grade teacher in Kentucky:

Saylor v. Board of Education of Harlan County, Kentucky (118 F.3d 507)

Posts on this thread, including this one

• Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/10/08, by questioning.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/10/08, by No, you are not.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/10/08, by it makes perfect sense.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/10/08, by Missed it... what did you do? nfm.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/10/08, by Lisa.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/10/08, by questioning.
• Re: I'm not surprised at all, 5/10/08, by If you look at it from their point of view.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/11/08, by Lisa.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/12/08, by justcommonsense.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/12/08, by Lisa.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/12/08, by liar, liar...
• Re: to liar, liar, 5/12/08, by yes, someone could call the police.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/14/08, by Tina.
• Re: Tina, 5/14/08, by another perspective.
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 5/14/08, by Teacherguy.
• Re: This OP didn't just reprimand a child. He threatened to, 5/14/08, by break the child's neck. There is a BIG difference. more.
• Re: This OP didn't just reprimand a child. He threatened to, 5/14/08, by Bob/VA.
• Re: Tina, 5/14/08, by Tina.
• Re: Tina, 5/14/08, by yet more prespective.
• Re: Tina..."free speech????", 5/14/08, by Oh Brother!.
• Re: Tina, 5/14/08, by Tina.
• Re: Tina, 5/15/08, by more perspective.
• Re: perspectives, 5/15/08, by mike.
• Re: Tina, 5/15/08, by You assume "We're all educated intelligent people".
• Re: Update: Am I fit to teach?, 6/11/08, by jd.

 
 
 

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