The Substitute
 

Substitute Teacher Charged In Desk-Throwing Incident

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. -- A substitute teacher at a Pasquotank County middle school was supposed to be teaching communications skills to eighth-graders, but his approach has landed him in big trouble.

Authorities have charged Alvin Jerome Lewis of Elizabeth City with multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting injury for allegedly throwing desks at his students.

Chief sheriff's Deputy Doug Hooper said officials don't know what led to desks being tossed at eighth-grade students and hitting them during the class.


One student said the teacher became angry after four or five students threw wads of paper at him.

Parents of all students at Elizabeth City Middle School received a letter from assistant principal Barbara Williams.

The letter said there had been a situation with a substitute teacher at the school that had resulted in seven students being slightly injured.

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I did sub teaching for a few years.
I have some stories I'll share here.
I know we have several teachers here.
This is a place to discuss what you've done.
I'll just bet you never threw a desk at anyone.
I'll also bet you wanted to a few times.
I did...

The rest of you probably had some subs.
You may have even hounded them out of their love of teaching.
heh heh...
Can you recall them?

I had a teacher who flew into a rage every once in a while. Never threw a desk, but he did throw a basson case at a friend of mine.

All I learned from him was to stay away from him as much as possible and to keep him happy when I couldn't. Not a bad guy, but not a good teacher.

I barely remember subs. In my school, they usually just tried to stay out of the way of the kids. It's a shame, but any class when you had a sub was just study hall.

There was the one in 8th grade that all the guys were nervous to talk to because of her good looks.

There were a bunch of college-age interns and student teachers in high school. That made having subs quite pleasant. One kid got suspended for harassment when he told one of them that she had a nice ass. It wasn't really appropriate, but it was true.

My jr. high science teacher liked to do that. He would also take is college ring, put it against the back of your neck, then start turning his wrist.

Well one of my substitute teaching gigs was doing a semester stint as a Spanish teacher in an inner city school.

Having only a speaking knowledge of Spanish - which I learned as a necessity because I managed our family's mushroom farm in my younger days and our crews were immigrant workers from Mexico - I was winging it.

Most of my students were Puerto Rican and the Spanish they spoke was far different from the Mexicanized Spanish I spoke. In any event, the challenge for us all was to learn (me to teach) Spanish from the book - mainly how to write it. I taught all levels from beginning to fourth-year.

It was a basically impossible task, and so I instituted a lot of self-study.

Anyway, the discipline policy was to have students escorted to the office when they were unmanageable. Unmanageable meant things like endangering others, throwing things, starting fights, screaming profanity, etc. The number of unmanageable students increased daily. At some point, the administration cut back the number of students they would accept in the office.

So I began ejecting the worst problem students into the halls. When they asked me where they should go I would say "I don't care".

I never got called back to that school.

The subtext of all this is the job of a substitute is crowd control. It's not really an "educational" situation...

When the administration stops supporting your disciplinary options, you have no options.

fortunately, i know a lot of the kids, or their parents, where i sub-teach (it's my old school). i've usually been able to establish a good rapport with most of them, and the problem kids? "TO THE COOLER..." support is excellent from the staff in this regard...

When I substituted, I never had any problems. The classes were well behaved and worked on whatever assignments had been left for them to do (I know.. sounds like "fantasy land").

It was when I became a teacher that this all changed. Working with the students I have now (who are nothing but discipline problems), it's a wonder I haven't blown my lid.

But I remember when I was in 8th grade, in a private school... I had this teacher who looked like an Amish freak of nature. He had this flaming red hair, beard, no mustache. He would lose his temper at the slightest thing. One day he got so angry, he started screaming at the entire class, throwing chalk, picked up desks and tossed them (luckily no students got hurt). He did dent a couple of lockers in the hallway though. I remember this every time my students aggravate the shit out of me.

ART, you threw a desk?

When I was in school whenever we had substitutes the entire class would torture them. I never helped out. I was always taught to respect people. The wife of my assistant basketball coach in high school was a substitute at my school for three days. The kids fucked with her to no end. They threw shit at her and verbally abused her. It was sad. I even tried to get people to stop in my class, but it didn't work. She walked out of the class that I was in the third day because she started crying from all the kids being complete assholes. She never came back. I left the class and went and got my coach and told him what happened. Everyone in the class got in trouble except for me cause she told them that I tried to stop the others. I knew her personally since she was married to my coach. She was one of the nicest ladies you would ever meet. It was sad....

sixate. no, but I wanted to in my heart.

Schoolroom power play.

I have to admit, the teacher was ameature. He could have done better....if you get the drift.

He shouldn't have thrown the desk, but I have a feeling those brats deserved it.

Having taught school myself and having a wife who still does brings this home to a point. Substitute teachers are a necessary evil. I do not know how it works where you live but I do know that it is real problem here. There are never enough to fill the need. This is something that in many instances is a self-inflicted wound by the school system. Substitutes are not paid enough- they are usually thrown into a classroom - any classroom, with no advance warning or preparation. Teachers who require substitutes most often, are usually those who are least prepared and often leave nothing for the substitute to use other than their own creativity. Substitute teaching is a lot like debate - you better be quick on your feet. I know that the people who were most dependable in our school district usually reach a point of total frustration. Many of them have seen substituting as a way to get a foot into a system hoping that it will eventually turn into a full time job - this normally doesn't seem to work out and eventually the person who at one time was a desirable substitute loses interest and either quits or gets a little more mediocre each day. Many of those who take jobs as a substitue are not qualified to be left in a room with a classroom of kids - this one quite obviously was not.

That sounds like an Adam Sandler movie. I'm not a teacher, but have the highest respect for them. IMO they are terribly underpaid. I'm curious of how much psychology or even child psychology is part of the core requirement in the curriculum of becoming a teacher.

My mother taught second grade for thirty years.

There is always discipline problems in schools. She taught inner city, and some of these kids were just crazy. Receiving little or no support from home, learning isn't a priority. And when you don't care to learn, school becomes a joke.

Her last year she had one kid that would not sit in his desk. He would "scootch" along the floor the entire day, while she was teaching. She was not allowed to touch the child (this became taboo decades ago), nor could she send him to the nurse or office every day. So she was told to let him do his thing, and to not let it be a distraction.

There were good subs and bad ones. If she needed to miss, she would call in the morning to see who she got. She would also leave detailed instructions on how the day was to be carried out, and hope half of it got done.

Subs are necessary evils, but because (as pointed out above) they do not get paid well and it is not steady work, most are probably good people that care about education. However, they are not equipped for the classroom.

I'd like to think the guy who through the desk was just extremely frustrated because he could not communicate with the people he was trying to educate. Partly his fault for not being able to communicate effectively, partly the kids falut for not listening.

In high school, we had a regular group of subs, so we all were familiar with their quirks.
One day Mr. H was there for our algebra class; he was a rather awkward, dweebish sort of guy, a fairly easy mark for fucking with.
He was correcting someone's answer to a problem we were working, and Smart Ass Kid says to him "You got the answers in the back of your book!"
Mr. H did not appreciate this, and proceeded to write another problem on the board, and then work it out right in front of us, for a panel and a half.
We'd all had Mr. H for any number of different subjects; who knew he knew his algebra? (In retrospect, it probably wasn't all that difficult a thing, but when you're 16-17, and struggling to make sense of anything beyond 2a+3b=5c, it was impressive.)
Needless to say, SAK was noticably quiet for the rest of the hour.

That's my anecdote.

I have been very lucky not to have too many unmangeable students. Perhaps it has to do with me I don't like to take crap from students but if what they are doing is in fun, they aren't disrupting, and they are still learning then I just ignore it. I had one student who was jabbing pushing a girl in my class (5th grade) so I said loudly to her "Oh just ignore him. Boys do that sometimes when they like a girl." He turned beet red and the whole class laughed. He was one of my good students too and could take a laugh. He laughed about it too but he quite bugging her. I substituted in highschool Algebra and English at one school and the kids were great. It was parochial school and they knew that if I had a problem with them the staff would back me up without question. I think the biggest part is whether the staff will back the teacher up. If you are fighting your own partners the students know it and they are like wolfs. I feel sorry for that teacher more than anything. I've known frustrationg like that and it's only been because the staff are against you. I had a principal get ripped because I had told my students I was pregnant - what else was I to do I had morning sickness. He said I didn't know yet cause I hadn't seen the baby's ultrasound or anything and it could possibly be a tumor. Grrr yeah right. A woman KNOWS when she is 3 months pregnant. Duh. You gotta have backup or you haven't got anything at all.

I'm sorry, but I have no pity on any teacher of any kind. You choose to put yourself in front of a class, knowing what could and will probably happen. In school I guess you could say I was one of the kids that picked on a sub. Since you usually end up seeing the same subs over and over you learn what each sub will tolerate and what they're breaking point is and it becomes sort of a game. Who can push a sub the farthest without being sent to the prinicpal? As a side note there are two times that vividly stick out in my head. In 8th grade a female substitue made the mistake of leaving her purse on the desk when she left the room. We borrowed a tampon from the purse and played football with it. That same year another sub was reading some book on sexuality during class. (The title escapes my mind right now) Anyways, I and a few others accused her of being a lesbian and found it highly funny. As a substitue teacher you're basically wearing a post-it note with 'kick me' wrote on it.

Well I suppose throwing a desk at someone is kinda teaching them a "communication skill", albeit a very poor and peculiar sort of communication skill.

My mother is a head teacher, she knows all the tricks. She knows how their minds work and how to deal with them. The real difficulty is when a newbie teacher doesn't know to watch carefully and learn troublemaker management from her - kinda like a rookie cop not giving proper backup to the veterans. Her (public) school is not dysfunctional though, so she gets her own backup from the Principal and deputy.

I pity good, experienced teachers working in dysfunctional schools though, their talents are wasted

It seems here we have a failure to communicate......

I remember having substitue teachers in school. In my Microbiology class, we would lite the bunson burners, spray rubbing alcohol on our hands, lite it and wave a people when the sub wasn't looking.

What do i mean, we and our.....it was just me

I'm a sub now. I like to spot a troublemaker and just send them right out of the classroom. It's been my experience that removing one or two problem students makes the rest of the class behave themselves pretty well.

I originaly wanted to be a high school English teacher. I didn't do it in fear of not being able to conform well enough to get a good teaching job. It's a really lame excuse but could you see me in charge of kids? Would you want me to teach your kids? Didn't think so.

My Junior English teacher was the one that told me to do it. He said I would be the best teacher any of the kids would have ever had. He also said I reminded him alot of himself. He was a fairly good teacher. Rather off on somethings. He cussed more then the kids and would often give us the day off because he was in a bad mood. I pictured myself doing the same and realized I didn't want to be responsable for ruining some kids education. All in all it was a mistake and I would love to get in front of a classroom at some point in my life. Maybe when I settel down. If I ever settle down.

i think i have a sick sense of humor. when i read that i couldn't help but laugh. i think the thought of a really pissed teacher launching a desk across the room was what made me laugh a little. if i had any sense of art skills i'd illustrate that in the most humorous way.
...do you have a link?

on topic though, i went to a small private school, so our subs were either people we knew personally, or the teaching assistant of the head teacher. needless to say, we had very little chance of disrespecting them and getting away with it.

I had a math prof in college that would throw chalk at the chalkboard to emphasize a point. Not that he was mad, but people tended to wake up and pay attention when a bunch of chalk fragments came raining down on them hehe. He was a great teacher but I imagine the janitors hated him.

ok, this is gonna be a long post, I'll tell you up front :)


So far,

one teacher had a bit of a temper, and when one of the students had been uninterested and to him "provocative", he jumped up from his desk, got to the desk of the student, dragged him to his feet, almost carried him to the corner, took his head and made him headbutt the wall 3 times, yelling: "Just to make sure I won't see your ugly head again."
Immediately after that, my neighbor in class laughed out loud and pointed: "haha, good doggie on a leash."
The teacher started fuming, marched over to us, and grappled the scrawny kid next to me, who held on to his desk yelling "lemme go, lemme go". The whole dragging and headbutting process got repeated once more.
Keep in mind we were about 15 years old at that time.

so much for injury from a teacher.

Other than that, we once talked a substitute into forgetting to teach his class and play his bagpipes for 40 minutes during class.

Same teacher (chemistry): I started a fistfight last hour of the week because of some idiot behind me. (he let us off without a word)

Same teacher tried to get the class to quiet down, struck his counter with a 50cm ruler, broke it on impact and couldn't keep laughing himself.

Same teacher (there's a pattern here somewhere, probably because it was the last hour of the week :p ): We were taking down the solution off the blackboard when suddenly the guy next to me almost dives in his backpack, starts to blow and blow, and the next thing I know, there's a blow-up doll with double D's and any anatomically correct orifices, being tossed around the classroom. Made the teacher yell out: "Put it away, before I hit it." Which naturally led the class to chant: "He'd hit it, he'd hit it" :D

Also got a kid to sit in the corner, and piled about 16 chairs on top of him, so he couldn't move. This again happened during chemistry class :)

Another chemistry-teacher had some fun making a Tie-Fighter out of atom-models and flying it behind our heads murmuring "I am your father Luke."

We managed to get one guy in front of the counter at physics class (solid counter, so he was effectively invisible from the teacher). And each time the teacher would turn around to write on the blackboard, we'd give him a signal. He'd get up, take something off the counter and get back down. He managed to clear about 3/4 of the counter (which was an impressive amount of stuff) before he took the teacher's notes... When he turned around, he finally noticed there was something missing :)


Keep in mind, all these things were never met with any repercussions, the ones that did, I have omitted :)

yeah, I loved highschool :)

My favorite story is from eighth grade, when we had a substitute who was another teacher in the school. The class was just talking while he was trying to talk to us about what we were going to do that day, so no one could hear him. After a couple minutes of asking us to stop, he got up, picked up the metal trash can, walked over to a counter near the windows, and slammed it down as hard as he could.

Needless to say, the class shut up after that. And he eventually became a guidence counceller :D

heh heh, I had a band director in Jr. High that would throw erasers and sometimes his baton (the little stick they swing around for you non-music people ;)). Not AT people, just in general directions of people when they were annoying him :) It was all in good fun though I think....well....I mean he was mad....but not meaning any harm at least :p I never thought it was abusive or anything like that, although I do know a lot of people thought he was "harsh" and things like that. I think he was just demanding and wasn't afraid to tell you what he thought of you ;) He was certainly not a fan of "lovey-dovey" teaching.

I had a teacher in 6th grade that threw a mug at a kid.

Never had a teacher throw anything at me, but my 5th grade teacher threatened to kill me.

I had a teacher at around 5th grade who taught music class throw a classmate's instrument at him as hard as he could. Good thing he missed, or else there would have been major reprecussions.

I also had a substitute wrestle another student into his seat because he wouldn't sit in his seat (this is 11th grade, people). Then he would cuss her out for making him throw away his coke, then walk out of class with the sub screaming at him through-out the hallway.

Now, generally, I'm nice to subs, but the aforementioned sub had given me problems before, too. A then-enemy-but-now-friend of mine threw one of my shirts oout of the class window, and the weather was a solid drizzle. I wanted to start something with him, but I opted against it and asked her to give me permission to go get it instead. What should have been a simple answer ended up being a real-smart-aleck remark. Already angry, I stormed out and slammed the door on her to go get my shirt...then came back to class.

What I did was wrong, I know, and I ended up apologizing to her later that day...but at the time it seemed right, and I don't hate myself for what I did then.

i had a great english teacher who threatend to break my knee caps with a lead pipe that he kept in his car he also like to tell people we were useless
good times good times

Subs are subs because they arent better than the teachers already teaching. Simple as that.