Archive for the ‘Professional Conduct’ Category

Teacher Fired for Finding and then Extinguishing School Fire

July 23, 2013

fire

If you can be fired for saving young children by extinguishing a school fire you can be fired for anything:

A daycare teacher in Florida was fired last week because she, of all things, put a fire out at her school.

Michelle Hammack worked at Little Temples Childcare facility in Arlington, Florida. While her students were napping last week, she smelled something burning in the school. Naturally, she went to check on the problem.

“I just leaned over and peeked around and there was a fire in the oven,” Hammack said. “I ran in there and opened it to try to put it out, and the fire alarm started going off.”

Hammack rushed back to her classroom, woke up her sleeping students, and took them outside. All other teachers in the school followed suit. After Hammack did a head count of her students, she went back into the school to make sure the fire hadn’t spread.

“When I got to the third classroom by the kitchen, I could see that it was just a contained fire in the oven,” she told the local CBS News affiliate in Jacksonville.

Hammack then grabbed a fire extinguisher, opened the oven, and put the fire out. The fire department then came to the school, inspected the then-extinguished fire, and told staff and students that they could re-enter the school.

But instead of being applauded for her handling of the fire, Hammack was fired.

“I fired her only because she left her room,” owner Olga Rozhaov said. “Even though children are sleeping, the teachers are supposed to be there.”

Like any one of us in her situation would be, Hammack is mad about being fired.

“It probably would have progressed had it not been put out before that. I didn’t start the fire. I put it out.”

But Rozhaov is standing behind her decision to fire Hammack.

“It’s not acceptable, and if anybody else does the same thing, I will fire again. I will fire them. No question,” she said.

Fortunately for Hammack, The Department of Children and Families is investigating the situation. Unless something we’re not being told about happened, you’ve got to think, or at least hope, Hammack will be getting her job back.

 

Click on the link to read Teacher Strip Searches Students in a Bid to Catch them Cheating

Click on the link to read Students Asked to Submit an Assignment Arguing that ‘Jews are Evil’

Click on the link to read School Instructs Students on How to Become Prostitutes

Click on the link to read Some Teachers Just Desperately Want to get Fired

Click on the link to read The Case of a Teacher Suspended for Showing Integrity

Click on the link to read Primary School Introduces Insane No-Touching Policy

If You Care About Your Students, You Don’t Do as Jeremy Forrest Did

June 20, 2013

 

forrest

Jeremy Forrest’s sister is well within her rights to defend her embattled brother – but surely she could have mounted a better case for attracting our sympathies:

The sister of a teacher accused of abducting a schoolgirl to France said she believed his caring nature had got him into trouble.

This was revealed as Richard Barton, prosecuting, said Forrest, 30, of Broyleside Cottages, Ringmer, could be considered a “paedophile” who “groomed” the 15-year-old girl who he is accused of abducting to France in September last year.

Today Ronald Jaffa, defending Jeremy Forrest, read out a series of character references.

Forrest’s sister Carrie Hanspaul  described her brother as “good-natured and extremely mild-mannered”.

She said: “He never has a bad word to say about anyone and always strives to do whatever he can to help other people and care for them.

“Unfortunately I believe this has contributed to his recent actions.”

His uncle, solicitor John Forrest, added: “He is deeply upset by the position in which he finds himself and is embarrassed and remorseful about the upset which he has caused to his friends and his family.”

Former colleague Susan Pinder, a retired teacher at Forrest’s first school, Bishop Justus CE Secondary School in Bromley, Kent, told how he had been teaching fellow inmates at Lewes Prison, while Dale Ives-Routleff, who was best man at Forrest’s wedding to Emily, said: “He was very unhappy at home and described his home/married life as ‘miserable, lonely and depressing’.”

Benedict Beaumont, a former ICT teacher at Bishop Bell School in Eastbourne – where Forrest taught, said: “Jeremy was one of the most gifted teachers that I have ever met.”

Police officer Terry Meegan, a cousin of Forrest’s mother, said that he was a “talented songwriter, singer and guitar player and was a member of a group called the Simpletons which played gigs to raise money for charity”.

Please click on the links to read two related posts on the same story:
You Don’t Warn Teachers Not to Have Sex With Their Students
Is Anybody Still Defending Jeremy Forrest?
Now that Jeremy Forrest is Arrested …
The Court System Should Deal Severely with Teachers Like This
Make an Example out of Jeremy Forrest
School Allegedly Turned a Blind Eye to Peter Forrest’s Relationship with Schoolgirl
Why Jeremy Forrest is Foolish and Megan Stammers is too Young

You Don’t Warn Teachers Not to Have Sex With Their Students

June 15, 2013

jem

 

Can someone explain to me how a school invested with the responsibility of looking after the welfare of its students chose to warn a teacher 6 times not to be romantically involved with his student? Surely he should have been suspended straight away. Warnings are for late submissions of lesson planners or making a thoughtless comment in the classroom, not for having sex with your student!

Teacher Jeremy Forrest said a 15-year-old schoolgirl was lying about a sexual relationship when he spoke to his bosses, a court heard today.

The married teacher was challenged by assistant head Alicja Bobela, after pupils had raised suspicions with her, the jury heard.

Miss Bobela, responsible for child protection, said two schoolboys claimed the schoolgirl had told pals Forrest, 30, had been picking her up from work experience at another school.

Forrest was warned on six occasions about his relationship with the girl before being challenged by Miss Bobela Bishop at Bell CoE school, Eastbourne, East Sussex, on July 12 last year.

And he had twice been told to keep his distance and was banned from messaging her privately on Twitter, Lewes crown court heard.

Ms Bebola said: “He came to find me and he talked to me.

“He said that he did not know where this was coming from, ‘why was she telling people these lies,’ and what could he do, ‘why is she doing this to me?

“He meant the schoolgirl telling friends about what he was doing.”

 

Please click on the links to read two related posts on the same story:
Is Anybody Still Defending Jeremy Forrest?
Now that Jeremy Forrest is Arrested …
The Court System Should Deal Severely with Teachers Like This
Make an Example out of Jeremy Forrest
School Allegedly Turned a Blind Eye to Peter Forrest’s Relationship with Schoolgirl
Why Jeremy Forrest is Foolish and Megan Stammers is too Young

Is Anybody Still Defending Jeremy Forrest?

June 12, 2013

On trial: The girl was 14 at the time of the alleged kiss with 30-year-old Jeremy Forrest (pictured today outside Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex)

 

I received a great deal of backlash for criticizing the motives and actions of Jeremy Forrest. In part the criticisms were founded, as he deserves to have a fair trial and the opportunity to defend himself. What may not have been founded were those that argued they were in love and that she was of legal age. The first argument is irrelevant and the second seems false as the latest revelations reveal that she may have been only 14 when Mr. Forrest first kissed her:

A schoolgirl who was allegedly abducted and taken to France by her teacher when police found out about their relationship has told how they first kissed in a classroom.

The girl was 14 at the time of the clinch with married 30-year-old Jeremy Forrest, which took place after they had been tweeting and texting regularly, a court heard.

In the days leading up to the kiss, the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she attended Bishop Bell Church of England School in Eastbourne, East Sussex, early specifically to see him.

In a videoed police interview played at Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex today, the girl, now 16, said: ‘I do remember being in his room and it was just me and him. He said “I really want to kiss you” and I said “I really want to”.

‘It got to the point where there was only so much of a friendship you could have before it developed into something else.’ She went on: ‘It ended up being in his classroom.’

As the relationship turned sexual two months later after she had turned 15, the girl said Forrest knew what the consequences would be for him – and that he could face prison.

She said in the interview, dated October 3 last year: ‘He told me that he didn’t want to take advantage of me, and I just didn’t have a problem with it any way.

‘It was what I wanted to do because of how much I liked him. I didn’t give it a second thought. Obviously I was worried about it and I spoke to my friends about it.’

She added: ‘He knew he would go to prison, lose his job and not work with children again, so he was aware and that made me feel better.

‘There was no naivety about it and it was what I wanted, and I probably encouraged it. We would bring it up and I would say ‘Yeah, I really want to’.’

The court has heard that police were alerted to their relationship following a tip-off.

 

Sexism in Teaching?

June 6, 2013

English teacher Eppie Sprung Dawson has been told she won't face prison after she was caught having sex with a pupil

The message must be sent to the judicial system that teachers should pay the ultimate price if they are found to have been sexually active with their students, regardless of whether they are male or female.

Whilst I have no evidence to suggest that the reason a female teacher was spared jail for engaging in a sexual relationship with her student partly because she was a woman, I ask the following question – Can you see a male teacher spared jail due to the excuse of being abused as a teenager? Somehow I don’t think so.

A teacher who admitted having sex with a pupil had been abused when she was a teenager, a court heard yesterday.

Eppie Sprung Dawson, 27, was targeted when she was aged between 13 and 18 by a man 29 years her senior, a sheriff was told.

Yesterday, Dawson was told she would escape a custodial sentence after earlier admitting having sex with the 17-year-old boy in the front seat of her car last December.

She will have to return to court to learn her fate next month, but a sheriff told her she had breached a position of trust, although she had not abused anyone.

Sheriff George Jamieson added: ‘You were there simply to teach but you have been called into temptation and you have committed adultery – your marriage is gone, and your career as a teacher is gone.

‘What you have been charged with is breach of trust, and I cannot see that there is anything to be gained by a custodial sentence.

‘Had it not been for the fact that you were this young man’s teacher, there would have been no criminality.’

I just don’t understand that last sentence. Isn’t the fact that she was his teacher a clear ‘game changer’. So what if she wouldn’t have broken a law had she not been his teacher – she was his teacher!  And the notion that she has been punished already due to the breakup of her marriage and the demise of her career is laughable. I have no sympathy for both losses because a person that cheats on their partner and abuses their position has shown through their actions that they didn’t value either.

And back to my central argument. If it was a male teacher, would he be given the same latitude?

Click on the link to read Teacher Strip Searches Students in a Bid to Catch them Cheating

Click on the link to read Students Asked to Submit an Assignment Arguing that ‘Jews are Evil’

Click on the link to read School Instructs Students on How to Become Prostitutes

Click on the link to read Some Teachers Just Desperately Want to get Fired

Click on the link to read The Case of a Teacher Suspended for Showing Integrity

Click on the link to read Primary School Introduces Insane No-Touching Policy

Teacher Strip Searches Students in a Bid to Catch them Cheating

May 28, 2013

exam

I abhor cheating of any kind, but there are some things I detest even more than cheating, such as humiliation and abuse:

High school students suspected of cheating on final exams were subjected to a strip-search by their teacher who was looking for a missing cell phone.

An internal investigation is underway at Cap-Jeunesse High School, in Saint-Jerome, Quebec, regarding the May 24 incident which involved 28 students.

According to reports, during a math exam, the teacher asked all the students to hand in their cellphones to avoid cheating.

When it was discovered that one was missing, she allegedly stopped the exam and ordered each girl into another room where they were strip searched, according to reports.

One teenage girl, who did not want to be named, told QMI Agency: ‘They put us in a small room. They said “take off your bra, then raise your arms”. They even tapped us on the back.’

The school board said the principal was not told of the incident.

The parents of the students involved were later contacted and the situation was explained.

Spokeswoman for the school Nadyne Brochu told Sun News that it was a ‘disproportionate action under the circumstances’.

The school board said  that ‘the decision seemed best’ to the teacher at that time but later acknowledged she ‘lacked judgement’.

They also acknowledged that the ‘climate was not conducive to a good test’ so they were allowed to retake the test if they wanted.

It is not known if any of the teachers involved will face disciplinary action.

‘Disproportionate action’? “Lacking judgement’? Talk about an understatement! If I was the parent of one of these students I would take legal action.

Students Asked to Submit an Assignment Arguing that ‘Jews are Evil’

April 13, 2013

Germany Exhibition Pop Art

 

I suppose I could dwell on how insensitive the teacher’s assignment topic was, but I prefer to acknowledge the courage and moral fortitude of the students who boycotted the task out of disgust:

An Albany High School teacher raised eyebrows and a flurry of complaints when an assignment required students to write from the perspective of the Nazis, New York Magazine reports.

Students were tasked with writing an argument that Jews are evil.

“You must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!” the assignment, posted on the Times Union website, reads.

The Albany newspaper reports that one-third of students boycotted the assignment, prompting Albany Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard to apologize to families, adding, “I don’t believe there was malice or intent to cause any insensitivities to our families of Jewish faith.”

The superintendent blamed tougher Common Core standards that require “sophisticated” writing linking English composition to other subjects, like world history. But not all are buying it.

NYmag.com noted that the exercise could have concerned a wide array of topics, so the rhetorical exercise seemed especially tone deaf.

“The weird part, though, is that the assignment calls on the students, in making their cases, to draw upon a packet of Nazi propaganda, ‘what you’ve learned in history class,’ and ‘any experiences you have.’ With … Jews being evil?” the article reads.

The Times Union reports that the superintendent did not release the teacher’s name.

I am an advocate for mixing subjects. It can be a very useful way of negotiating the curriculum and making your teaching flow thematically. This has nothing to do with the mixing of subjects. This has everything to do with a teacher making a blunder. Instead of deflecting the issue, the school should have apologised profusely and left it at that.

 

Click on the link to read What is it About Some Teachers and Social Media?

Click on the link to read The Mission to Stop Teachers From Having a Sense of Humour

Click on the link to read School Instructs Students on How to Become Prostitutes

Click on the link to read Some Teachers Just Desperately Want to get Fired

Click on the link to read The Case of a Teacher Suspended for Showing Integrity

Click on the link to read Primary School Introduces Insane No-Touching Policy

Poor Judgement by a Potentially Good Teacher

February 15, 2013

Give this teacher a second chance. He made an extremely poor choice but his intentions to make his lessons more engaging are extremely noteworthy:

A history lesson took a turn for the worst recently when a Texas middle school teacher opted to show, rather than tell.

According to multiple reports, the Schrade Middle School history teacher attempted to lasso student volunteers with a rope during a lesson on cowboys and herding methods.

Footage of the teacher’s lasso lesson, captured on a cell phone by seventh-grade student Tristan McKissick and shared with local station WFAA, shows a man lassoing a student in an open field. The young boy, who is wearing a hooded sweatshirt, falls to the ground amid laughter from other classmates after the rope is tossed around his neck and shoulders.

A 13-year-old student suffered bruises to his neck following the incident.

As the Dallas Observer notes, the history lesson was publicized after the bruised student’s parents “complained to the school and local TV station.”

The district placed the teacher on administrative leave Tuesday, pending the results of an investigation.

“It was not malicious. It was not intentional,” Garland Independent School District spokesman Chris Moore explained to the Dallas Morning News. “But it was very poor judgment.”

Click on the link to read What is it About Some Teachers and Social Media?

Click on the link to read The Mission to Stop Teachers From Having a Sense of Humour

Click on the link to read School Instructs Students on How to Become Prostitutes

Click on the link to read Some Teachers Just Desperately Want to get Fired

Click on the link to read The Case of a Teacher Suspended for Showing Integrity

Click on the link to read Primary School Introduces Insane No-Touching Policy