|
I won't even go into the day to day details of what kinds of behaviors we deal with at our school. Suffice it to say, however, that a stern, authoritative "Knock it off!" will have a fairly common response by the student. That response being that student laughing at you.
A student laughing at a teacher at our school would barely register a blip on the behavioral radar. In fact, it's fairly certain that the student probably won't even be in trouble unless there is blood involved.
One anecdote to illustrate my point: One of my students (6th grade) got in a fight 2 weeks ago. During the fight, he broke the arm of the student he was fighting. This resulted in a 1 day suspension. 1 day for a broken arm.
I spent 2 years building a strong relationship with my students. But that's with my students. The other students in the school don't behave towards me the way my students do because they only see me a couple times during the day. This has resulted in me being cussed at, called names, threatened, etc. Not every child has a phone at home and even if they do, the phone is rarely answered. Suspensions rarely work because the cause of the child's behavior is so deeply rooted that a suspension does not solve the problem. In fact, most students don't even honor the suspension by returning the following day.
With regards to a special education student: I don't know the policy of Naples, Florida, but in Chicago, a special education student cannot be suspended for more than 10 days in a school year. There are no exceptions to this. For severe behavior where a student needs to be removed from a classroom for the safety of other students and the 10 day suspension rule has already been reached, then the police are the only other option.
Public schools do not have the resources to deal with students in this manner. Until we are given the resources and the personnel to deal with violent students, then I'll place the safety of the other students over the "rights" of the offending student any day.
I personally have had the police called 3 times. I won't hesitate to do it again. I'm not here to counsel or rehabilitate violent students. I'm here to teach. Anyone who creates an environment hostile to that is not welcome in my classroom, I don't care how "special" they are or how whiny the parent is.
__________________
"I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am" - Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses
|