What would you do if a teacher slapped your child?
We have a teacher at my son's school (he's in 5th grade) who has had years of anger management issues, plus she's OCD and expects the children to do things "perfectly". My son does not have her (as per my demands that she wasn't allowed anywhere near him), but has friends in her class. Yesterday, I learned from my son that she apparently slapped a student in the face on Friday. She was still in school yesterday! I'm going up there to find out why - what would you do if this was happening at your school. I'm about ready to call the news, once I confirmed this actually happened.
2008-10-30T04:08:03Z
I should have added, we also heard it from children in the Jr. High - 4 different families had the same story, same day with 9 kids from 2 different schools all saying the same thing. It's odd! I'm trying to get to the bottom of it. I went with another mom (a friend who pulled her older daughter from the witch's class 2 years ago) and talked to the principal. He denied knowing anything about it - as did the assistant principal. We got, "M. would never do that to a child! I would be the one to know about it." - no, and she wouldn't yell, scream, throw desks, throw books, send kids into a panic attack either - which she did to my daughter 2 yrs ago.
2008-10-30T04:11:14Z
We're talking to all the moms first and trying to confirm from the children if anything happened in that classroom. It was only a matter of time before she did something like this. She needed to be gone years ago, but she has tenure.
ozboz482008-10-29T14:11:57Z
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Please do call the media. This monster needs to be removed from the classroom.
If my child was slapped, I would not slap back, as it would open me up for charges of assault, believe it or not.
I would, however, call the media, file assault charges against the teacher, and sue the school district.
I expect my children to be respectful to their teachers and I would be very suprised if one of them were ever in a situation to be slapped by anyone. If it did happen to one of my children, I would be having an immediate conference with the teacher as well as the principal along with my child to find out the facts of the situation. Since this particular incident is alleged and you have not gotten any facts about it nor does it affect your child directly then I would tread lightly here. Confidentiality issues will be in place here and I would think your local news media wouldn't touch anything like this without some concrete evidence as well as information from the actual parties involved. Too much liability to accuse someone before charges have been filed. I would assume that the student, his/her parents, the administration as well as the lawyers from your school district have the matter under control. Anyone who suggests that they would go in and hit the teacher isn't any better than she is, if the facts are true that she did slap a student. Then, that person would probably be charged with assault not to mention it sends a bad message to their child. It is not uncommon for stories to circulate that may have some bit of fact, but as the story travels, it suddently begins to pick up embellishments with no factual basis. If it were me, I'd find out the facts before making plans to spread a rumor around.
You are correct, you should confirm if this happened or not at the school.
If it did happen, then talk to the Principle to see if the teacher will continue to be present at the school. If she will be, your next step should be to talk to the school board.
If you get the same answer, talk to the parents of the student that was slapped and volunteer to go with them to file a police report as well as talking with the school board a second time together and with any other concerned parents.
If no results occur at this point, contact the media.
As a parent, you should know what type of behavior your child is being exposed to. If your child witnessed something it becomes your right to follow up on it.
She should be fired. Bottom line. There is no excuse for slapping a child in the face. I think that you are right to confirm that this actually did occur before alerting the news or other parents. Hopefully for the kids sake, this was a big misunderstanding!
I would talk to the parents of the child who was slapped. Sometimes fifth graders do not have all the facts. After talking to them I would go to the principal, superintendent and then if nothing was resolved I would advice those parents to get a lawyer.