Teacher Questions Her Job After The Parent Of A 10-Year-Old Who Kicked & Punched Her During A Tantrum Threatened To Sue
The child's mother accused his teacher of lying about the entire altercation.
VCoscaron / Shutterstock A teacher is considering leaving the public education field altogether after a troubling altercation with a parent of an unruly and violent child.
Posting to the subreddit "r/Teachers," she pointed out that despite being physically attacked by another student, she ended up being at risk of losing her job.
A teacher is questioning her job after the parent of a child who kicked and punched her threatened to sue.
In her Reddit post, she explained that she'd been teaching in the public school system for the last eight years and had built quite a strong relationship with her entire school community. However, she shared that her one complaint about the job is how often the parents of students will push against the teachers.
She recalled a specific incident involving one of her 10-year-old students who had kicked and punched her after she'd approached him to ask what happened when she noticed another student had been crying.
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As soon as she tried to confront the young boy, he swore at her and punched her in the shin twice before punching her in the arm as well.
"He began throwing objects in the room, screaming and swearing. It escalated extremely quickly and higher than he had ever escalated before," she wrote. "The other teacher began removing students from the class so they did not witness more and weren’t hurt. Due to his actions, [he] was suspended. Other students found out because they witnessed his escalation."
The mother of the 10-year-old wasn't happy that her son was being suspended and accused her of not only lying about the entire altercation between her son, the other student, and herself but telling the entire class he was being suspended, essentially humiliating him further.
To make matters worse, the child's mother threatened to sue her and formally complained to the school.
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She had to write a three-page document outlining everything that happened between her and the student, along with everyone who'd witnessed the incident. Luckily, there were several eyewitnesses, and after six weeks of constant threats, abusive emails from the child's mother, and endless meetings, the mom decided to pull her son from the school altogether.
Now that the situation has blown over, she admitted that the entire thing has continued to bother her and made her question why she's even in this job if she's just going to be abused and threatened in conflicts that aren't her fault at all. She doesn't receive respect from parents, and it's disheartening because of how much she cares about their children.
Unfortunately, she's not alone in feeling as if the teaching profession has become a hassle instead of being fulfilling and exciting.
According to a National Education Association survey, a staggering 55% of educators are thinking about leaving the profession earlier than they had planned. Exhausted and exasperated, public school teachers and other school staff are under unparalleled strain, made worse by recent dire staff shortages that have plagued school systems across the country.
Not only are teachers being severely underpaid, but they are also facing increasing scrutiny and hostility from parents and administrators alike. The support systems that should be in place to protect educators are starting to seem quite inadequate, leaving them vulnerable in situations where they should be supported and valued.
A similar experience happened to an elementary school teacher named Ms. Craver, who admitted that she didn't feel safe in her classroom anymore after a student made an active threat against her and her other students. The student wasn't disciplined and was allowed to come back to school the very next day.
"This is crazy to me. You gotta parent these kids. You gotta be a social worker. You gotta deal with these behaviors, and then I also gotta deal with wondering what does this kid mean when he said he wanted to kill all of us?" Craver remarked.
It seems that a teacher's safety in the classroom doesn't take precedence over angry parents and their refusal to acknowledge or address their children's behavior. This imbalance does nothing to quell unruly and outright violent behavior and does a disservice to the child who will get away without being disciplined and the other students in the classroom who've now had their learning environment severely disrupted.
Suppose we want to ensure the safety of both teachers and children alike and solve the issue of distrust that public school educators have in believing their institutions will protect them. In that case, we need to realize that allowing them to be mistreated in the first place is unacceptable and undermines the values of the public school system.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.