FSM I'm, Pissed Off!

[monster]

Stick this school year with a fork, I'm all done with it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

And the weather sucks.

And my house sucks.

And people suck.

Ugh.

OK, done whining, thanks.

[Clodfobble]

When can we hear about the issue with the pending legal action, huh, huh??

[squirell nutkin]

Do you hear that giant sucking sound? No, not all the jobs going to Mexico, that other giant sucking sound. WTF is that?

[spudcon]

All the Mexicans coming here.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

When can we hear about the issue with the pending legal action, huh, huh??

Hmmm not sure. I guess an outline won't hurt now I've calmed down a little. Basically looks like my kids teacher is going to be prosecuted for "inappropriate touching" whatever legal category that falls into. Of course it's up to the law to make a decision, but all of the parents at the school who know him believe him innocent, but he is a touchy-feely teacher and that's why we and our kids love him, so there's a good chance he put himself in a stupid position with a kid that was new in the class and has many issues that might lead to them or their parents having a different interpretation of an event of being made to feel uncomfortable..... The truth will out I'm sure.

But here's the rub -he was cleared by the school district but the parents weren't happy so they went to the police -they said they'd investigate of course but did not prosecute immediately, so the parents went to faux news who ran a "story" with a reinactment of a spanking with a pillow () -which is not the original allegation- and interviewed the mom "disguised" -now we all know who the kid is and so do our kids who are missing their favorite teacher.....

So now the poor kid had to attend school with a class that hate her because they're too young to really get that it's not her fault, the teacher cannot attend school and has his 35year blemish free teaching career looking to be in tatters -even if he's cleared, there's no undoing the damage, the class is getting a string of subs who don't understand the way the class runs -it's a team-taught class at an alternative program school -two classes two teachers all mixed together in two rooms- because their regular sub -the one who knows how it runs- is the regular teacher's son, so obviously that's not a good idea.

It's a mess. And we've already had a couple of run-ins with this family and they've only been at the school this year. I wrote more but erased it because it might make them too eady to identify.

But I think I can relate this one: their son was on our swim team, got a headache so we gave him water, had him sit down and call his parents. They felt we should have called an ambulance because the headache developped into a migraine, and went to the district to file a complaint. Not the AD or the principal, but the district. We had to fill in incident reports etc (of course we did the right thing, no complaint was upheld -most coaches would have told them to man-up and swim.....)

See I knew it would make me rant. sorry.

And that poor girl, she's emotionally and cognitively impaired, this isn't going to help. I understand the need to investigate etc, but to go to a news station and villify the teacher and expose the girl when it's still in investigative stages... grrrr.... and apparently, there is almost always a prosecution if there has been any media coverage, regardless of how little evidence there is, because the allegation in itself is evidence enough to prosecute unless they can demonstarte it was an outright lie. Which I doubt.

[monster]

And one of my other kid's teachers got all snippy because i asked for a schedule/information for the overnight camp. The one that happens on Thursday, the one which I'm hearing all sorts of rumors about what they'll need to take/not take/special luggage requirements because they're going on the train.......

[Clodfobble]

Holy hell, I'm pissed off just reading about it. That really sucks, monster. Surely you've at least been able to let the teacher know the rest of you are supporting him 100%, right? Allegations like that have got to be terrifying for him.

[squirell nutkin]

It would be a shame if their house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground while they were all out at the movies one night.

A crying shame. Very sad.

Where abouts do ya'll live anyway? I mean, I wonder if it's in a lightning belt or anything.

[Cicero]

Do you know what sucks? My current grades.... I'm outta here!!

[Aliantha]

That sounds really terrible monster. The rules for appropriate touching are just stupid though. I remember when I did my first prac, my supervising teacher said to me, "remember, don't touch the kids under any circumstances. It's against the rules." At the time I remember thinking how stupid it was. I recall when I was a kid the best teachers were the ones who would put a hand on your shoulder for reassurance every once in a while. Some of them even gave the little kids hugs and so on if they were upset. I think there'd be hell to pay if a teacher so much as considered hugging a kid these days. It's just dumb.

I hope your teacher ends up being fine monster. It'd be a shame to lose him if he's as good as you say.

[Razzmatazz13]

It was very strange for me when I was in school for early childhood education because you ARE allowed to touch the kids. (Different rules for younger kids I guess.) I was terrified during all of my in-class lessons that some sort of lawsuit would erupt because some kid gave me a hug or something.

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by Cicero

Do you know what sucks? My current grades.... I'm outta here!!

lol Happy studying!


_____________________That said... This is upsetting. I'm sorry that people are so f'cked up sometimes.

[monster]

Oh I forgot to mention, the other teacher in the classroom -who is also awesome- is a 30yo female who used to be his student. There's no way she wouldn't say something if he was going over the top.

But we are a very different school. It's all on a first name basis, it's a small school, everybody knows everybody from kindergarten thru eighth grade through teachers through involved parents. So it's much friendlier that your average school, more like family -and harder for outsiders to break in without us intending it to be. Also, everyone is treated as an equal, so to outsiders, the kids appear bolshie, overconfident and noisy. But they are NOT afraid to speak out if they think a teacher is out of line. Or a parent. Or each other.

District policy is no touch. But I have never seen that enforced and nobody expects it to be. It's not an easy school to get in to (it's entry by lottery but there are a lot of applications) and you have to do an induction, classroom visits and observations. You know what's coming, what it's like. But I suspect -now I think about it- that the rules may have been relaxed a little to allow this family in, resulting in them not knowing exactly what to expect. The day before I knew about this, I happened to meet this mom for the first time and observe her being a moderator as the kids did cooking demonstrations to small groups of classmates. She was like the newb in the cellar who starts a zillion topics in txt sp33k and wants us to stop calling each other cunts. She didn't butt in when she should've and did when they were sorting it out nicely by themselves.

Stuff it, I'm going to give more details, I googled it, there's no way they could be identified from this -it's a large foster/adoption family scenario, with several special needs kids. The sort who might be deemed to have an emergent need to get into a school where special needs kids are more easily able to remain within the mainstream and so allowed to skip the waiting list/ waive all the classroom visits, especially for the 6-8 grade kids who might get trampled entering the other huge middle schools at such a tough time in their lives.

One of the things we say is that Open Schooling works for pretty much every kid. But not every parent.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Holy hell, I'm pissed off just reading about it. That really sucks, monster. Surely you've at least been able to let the teacher know the rest of you are supporting him 100%, right? Allegations like that have got to be terrifying for him.

Yes, he knows he has our support.

[monster]

Originally Posted by squirell nutkin

It would be a shame if their house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground while they were all out at the movies one night.

A crying shame. Very sad.

Where abouts do ya'll live anyway? I mean, I wonder if it's in a lightning belt or anything.

It would be a shame. For all their suckiness, this family's home is a roof and some stability to X kids who would otherwise be in care. I feel like they have taken on more than they can handle and that maybe why they use a sledgehammer to crack a nut -perhaps without thought for the potential catastrophic consequences. These are not the only two example of that behaviour -they seem to have a "straight to the top is the best way to go, minimum effort for maximum result" mentality.

As another who takes on more than they should because if they don't, no-one will, I feel I can't criticize them for this even in these circs.

But if that lightening bolt were just to knock a little sense and perspective into them, that would be cool. I could handle that.

The allegations are that the "inappropriate behaviour" happened in front of the whole class. The whole class didn't see it. Which to me screams different interpretations of the same behaviour. And it also screams maybe inadvisable behaviour, but not criminal. the girl was not taken aside, kept behind, waylaid in a hallway, semi-clad........

I don't know. I feel so helpless. I want to scream and shout, but that always has potential to do more harm than good in these cases -especially if the family have a saintly, media-friendly background. None of the other news agancies have picked this story up, and faux haven't updated it since, either. The comments on their website have mostly been in line with the views I have expressed here.

But it still sucks