Archive for the ‘Professional Conduct’ Category

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Some Teachers Just Desperately Want to get Fired

January 23, 2013

catherine

 

Yesterday I wrote a post about a teacher unfairly on the brink of losing her job. Today I’m writing about one that probably never deserved to have one in the first place:

As an RE teacher it was her job to enlighten pupils about Christian values and the beliefs of other religions.

Instead, Catherine Reynolds encouraged her class to have lots of sex and ‘sleep around’ before marriage.

In expletive-ridden lessons, she told pupils to ‘stop bloody talking’, ‘sit on your a***’ and warned them: ‘If you don’t want to learn RE, you can p*** off’.

An investigation into her behaviour also found she posted offensive comments on her Facebook page. Following a parents evening she wrote: ‘That was the most f****** horrendous evening of my life’, and branded parents ‘retarded’.

Yesterday Reynolds, 27, was banned from the classroom for five years after Michael Gove decided she was a disgrace to the profession.

Describing her conduct as unacceptable, the Education Secretary declared it fell seriously short of that expected of a teacher and added that a disciplinary panel had struggled to identify any ‘understanding, insight or remorse’.

Reynolds taught RE at Saddleworth School near Oldham, having joined the state-run secondary as a newly-qualified teacher in 2008.

The Manchester University graduate initially showed promise, and was feted by pupils on a ‘rate my teacher’ website.

However, she got into trouble after her Facebook comments of September 2010 came to light, a report by a Teachers Agency panel found.

These included: ‘F****** retarded parents’ followed by: ‘That’s because only eejits pick RE’.

Further complaints followed in January and March 2011, the panel said.

Reynolds made numerous references to ‘sex from a personal perspective’ and told one pupil ‘not to get married because then you can’t sleep around’ and that ‘you should have sex all the time’.

In one lesson, she recounted a visit to Amsterdam in which she saw a sex show involving a horse and a woman and revealed she had been for a naked massage.

She used inappropriate language on a regular basis, the report found, including a string of swear words used to describe various people. One pupil was apparently told to ‘F*** off’.

Reynolds, who is married with a one-year-old daughter, told her class of taking a morning-after pill and of having a relationship with an older man.

She also showed pupils the tattoos on her lower back and her thigh and played them ‘inappropriate videos’.

Question: How on earth did she last this long?

 

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 Proof You Can Be Suspended for Anything

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

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Teacher Marries Her Student to Avoid Jail

January 21, 2013

shipman

Surely the lawmakers are not proud of this loophole:

A US teacher facing underage sex charges has avoided going to jail after marrying the man she was accused of abusing as a teenager.

North Carolina woman Leah Gayle Shipman, 42, divorced her husband of 19 years and married John Ray Ison in 2011, when he was just 17 years old.

Shipman was facing 15 years in jail for alleged statutory rape after being arrested in 2009 for having sex with Mr Ison, who was a 15-year-old high school student at the time.

Mr Ison admitted to investigators that he and Shipman had sex when he was 15 years old, The Wilmington Star-News reports.

But a court learned last month the couple had since married, preventing authorities from forcing him to testify.

A defendant’s spouse cannot be made to give evidence in criminal cases under North Carolina law. Mr Ison’s mother signed legal documents giving permission for her son to marry.

Shipman pleaded guilty last month to the lesser charge of resisting an officer investigating alleged abuse.

She was given a 30-day suspended jail sentence.

 

Click on the link to read Alleged Gang Rape in a Classroom and the Teacher ‘Does Nothing’!

Click on the link to read The Most Sickening Abuse I Have Ever Seen a Teacher Commit

Click on the link to read Brawl Between Student and Teacher Goes Viral (Video)

Click on the link to read Teachers Continue to Fail the Common Sense Test

Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management

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Alleged Gang Rape in a Classroom and the Teacher ‘Does Nothing’!

January 15, 2013

martin

This story is too horrific to even contemplate. What kind of teacher fails to act under these circumstances? If these allegations are determined to be true, dismissal is not nearly enough of a penalty for this teacher:

A mentally challenged 15-year-old New York girl endured a brutal gang rape as she was trapped beneath her by two boys with her teacher only feet away, alleges a lawsuit filed Friday.

The special needs student, identified only by the initials K.J., was allegedly sexually assaulted for 10 minutes as another student  ‘hit her on the head whenever she tried to escape,’ during a science class at Martin De Porres Academy in Elmont, N.Y.

The girl’s mother, who filed the suit, alleged that the teacher ignored the assault even as one student danced on the desk while another attempted to sodomize K.J.

Though the girl told a school social worker the next day, school officials failed to report the crime.

K.J. has an IQ of 60 and was sent to De Porres by city.

She was the only girl in her class of 13 boys.

Her alleged attackers all had known ‘violent propensities’ and are residents of Casa De La Salle, a home for juvenile delinquents.

K.J.’s mother said she was powerless to get her daughter transferred immediately, and as a result the girl was bullied for months.

In December, school officials put her in a room with one of the boys who had been sexually harassing her and admonished them to ‘discuss their issues.’

K.J. left that classroom with a gash over her right eye.

 

Click on the link to read Teachers Drag a Blind Boy by the Legs Down Corridor (Video)

Click on the link to read The Most Sickening Abuse I Have Ever Seen a Teacher Commit

Click on the link to read Brawl Between Student and Teacher Goes Viral (Video)

Click on the link to read Teachers Continue to Fail the Common Sense Test

Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management

Click on the link to read When Something Doesn’t Work – Try Again Until it Does

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Posted in Professional Conduct | 2 Comments »

Teachers Drag a Blind Boy by the Legs Down Corridor (Video)

December 6, 2012

Two teachers physically drag a blind boy down the corridor without realising that their actions are being filmed by the surveillance cameras.

What was the boy’s crime, you may ask.

Did he violently approach his teachers with a knife?

Did he hit them?

Did he threaten the safety of other students?

Nope. All he did was refuse to go to the next class!

Surveillance video showing two teachers dragging a blind 6-year-old by the legs has gone viral and outraged online viewers — and has now brought action from the school district.

In the video, a special education teacher grabs the boy by his ankles and drags him down a hallway on his back. A second teacher joins in to take the boy’s other leg as a third watches from behind.

The Santa Fe educator at primarily responsible for the incident has been placed on administrative leave from the Gonzales Community School, police told KOB.

The teacher told police she physically moved the the boy because he didn’t want to go to another classroom when told to do so, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. Sgt. Andrea Dobyns of the Santa Fe Police Department said officials do not believe there was malintent.

“We don’t believe the teacher was intentionally trying to hurt the child, but our problem is the blatant neglect for his safety,” Dobyns told KOB.

The boy has complained about head pain after the incident, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, and both teachers who laid hands on the student face child abuse charges. Live witnesses could face misdemeanor charges for failing to report the incident, the paper reports.

Dozens of families across the country have filed complaints against schools and districts for employing physical disciplinary tactics that have injured or killed children. In an incident much like the one in Santa Fe, a Georgia teacher was caught on surveillance video slapping and dragging a kindergartener across the school gym. That teacher was allowed to keep her job after a 30-day unpaid suspension.

According to a federal report released in March, schools physically restrained students 39,000 times during the 2009-2010 school year, and 70 percent of those cases involved students with special needs. Just 17 states have laws that specifically limit the use of physical discipline.

Lucky this was caught on film. Now that it has, it will allow the authorities to decide (pending a full investigation) whether or not they deserve the privilege of being teachers.

This makes me wonder about all the abuse that must happen that goes undetected. I am starting to favour surveillance cameras in classrooms. Ultimately, a child’s welfare is more important than a teacher’s right to privacy.

Click on the link to read The Most Sickening Abuse I Have Ever Seen a Teacher Commit

Click on the link to read Brawl Between Student and Teacher Goes Viral (Video)

Click on the link to read Teachers Continue to Fail the Common Sense Test

Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management

Click on the link to read When Something Doesn’t Work – Try Again Until it Does

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Brawl Between Student and Teacher Goes Viral (Video)

November 22, 2012

Teachers do not have the right to get physical with their students no matter how bullied, humiliated or intimidated they are made to feel. I can understand what this teacher was thinking and I sympathise with the position he was put in, but his actions were simply not acceptable. If only teachers were treated with greater respect from the wider community, then students would get a more positive insight into what we do and why we do it. This kind of attitude comes about from a growing lack of respect for teachers from the wider community.

Video of a student punching and attacking a substitute teacher at Palm Beach Lakes High School in Florida is going viral, and school officials are investigating the filmed incident.

WPTV reports that the footage was posted to Facebook with the caption, “BoI only at Palm Beach Lakes smh…” World Star Hip Hop has since picked up the video, drawing more than 841,000 views as of early Tuesday afternoon.

The video begins with an unnamed student and the substitute teacher — identified by students as Mr. Smith or “Smitty” — standing face-to-face in an argument. The student then shoves the teacher and punches him. The teacher tackles the student, chasing him until the teen runs out of the room. It’s unclear what the brawl was about, but students interviewed by WPTV spoke highly of the teacher and said students should show respect for him.

“A teacher should, you know, stand up for himself, but not to go on ahead and you know,” Palm Beach Lakes High senior Darrel Phillips told the station. “I’m speechless right now.”

School officials declined comment on an open case, but say that the substitute teacher has been fired and the student was expelled.

Click on the link to read The Most Sickening Abuse I Have Ever Seen a Teacher Commit

Click on the link to read Student Takes the Fall for Teacher’s Incompetence

Click on the link to read Teachers Continue to Fail the Common Sense Test

Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management

Click on the link to read When Something Doesn’t Work – Try Again Until it Does

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Teachers Continue to Fail the Common Sense Test

October 28, 2012

Why are there so many immature, irresponsible and downright twisted teachers around?

Two drama teachers were sacked for allowing GCSE students perform in a play involving depictions of rape, oral sex and child abuse within a family in front of their parents and classmates.

The play – which even featured a pupil acting out the role of a father sexually abusing his daughter – shocked teachers, upset parents and left children sobbing and vomiting in distress.

Complaints were made and the two unnamed teachers, who were supervising the 15 and 16-year-olds who wrote and acted in the play, were sacked by the school for gross misconduct.

They are now pursuing unfair dismissal claims – but the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruled this week that a previous decision in their favour was ‘perverse’ and that their cases must be re-heard.

The teachers taught drama at an unidentified school. One was head of the department – and they were responsible for supervising GCSE students in writing, rehearsal, production and performance.

The ‘age-inappropriate’ material included graphic descriptions of sex, rape, oral sex between father and daughter, child abuse between parents and children, and group sex within a family, EAT judge Lady Smith said.

A showcase of the work was held in front of friends and relatives, but the department head failed to warn those invited of the potentially disturbing nature of the production.

Even the headteacher of the school was not told about the content and was unaware of what the students had been involved in until after the showcase, Lady Smith said.

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The Most Sickening Abuse I Have Ever Seen a Teacher Commit

October 24, 2012

Teachers should never, ever hit their students. The fact that corporal punishment is legal in certain states in America is shameful. What’s even worse is when the child gets hit for nothing more than getting a wrong answer. The video I have linked is truly gruesome. Poor, young, maths students are repeatedly hit for what simply not showing an understanding of the skill conveyed:

A teacher at the Sky Montessori kindergarten in north China’s Shanxi Province has been detained following the release of what appears to be surveillance video of her repeatedly hitting her students.

Officials first clued into the behavior when a father of one of the students said his daughter came home with bruises and swollen eyelids.

“I picked up my kid at 5:10 p.m. and when we got home I noticed that her eyes were swollen with two welts, it was swollen here [pointing to one cheek] and bruised black and green here,” said the father who first reported the abuse.

“Between 4 and 4:30, my daughter was hit 70 times, slapped about 70 times on the face, and kicked in the butt twice. That’s for my child. Another was hit 40-some times, 43 times. Another one was hit 10 times, and another 27 times.”

In a surveillance camera video distributed by LiveLeak, the teacher, identified as Li Zhuqing, appears to hit multiple children many times in a 10-minute period, even going so far as to grab one pupil by the arm, then try to throw him to the ground.

The children were allegedly punished for being slow at arithmetic.

“The teacher did it because she couldn’t answer correctly 10 plus one,” continued the man whose daughter had been abused.

“But she could do single digit addition. Because of this, she couldn’t get it right the first time, so the teacher taught her. But then my daughter said, ‘Ms. Liu, I still don’t know.’ She still didn’t know so the teacher picked up a booklet and went at her face.”

How dare this teacher hit these poor, defenseless children. If found guilty she must be given a prison sentence.

Click on the link to read Teacher Allegedly Encourages Students to Spit on Classmate

Click on the link to read Student Takes the Fall for Teacher’s Incompetence

Click on the link to read Let’s Just Scrap ‘Teacher of the Year’ Awards

Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management

Click on the link to read When Something Doesn’t Work – Try Again Until it Does

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Teacher Allegedly Encourages Students to Spit on Classmate

October 22, 2012

 

This is yet another example of the failing of our teacher training program. All the theory in the world don’t prepare a teacher for managing the practical, everyday challenges of the classroom. Our young teachers need to be prepared for testing scenarios and need to deal with them with a greater presence of mind than is alleged in this incident:

A Shenandoah, Iowa elementary music teacher has been placed on administrative leave following an alleged incident in which the instructor encouraged her students to spit at a peer.

Alex Kindopp tells KETV that it all started when her 9-year-old son Jaxon did a “raspberry,” or sticking his tongue out and blubbering, at a classmate. Spotting him, the Shenandoah Elementary music teacher reportedly asked the boy how he would feel if others did the same to him.

“Everyone gathered around me and she said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, spit away,’” Jaxon told KETV. The instruction prompted his classmates to surround him and spit on his face and shoulders, the boy said.

Worried that his classmates’ excretions would get in his mouth, Jaxon lowered and covered his head with his arms, he told KCRG. The teacher then reportedly asked, “Why are you covering your head? I thought you liked being spit on?”

Kindopp tells KETV that her son now has trust issues and according to the World-Herald News Service, has since become sick and was placed on an antibiotic. The family is also reportedly moving to Arizona.

“It’s degrading, humiliating, very unsanitary,” the mother told KETV. “If someone does this, what else are people capable of?”

 

Click on the link to read Should Teachers Be Allowed to go to the Beach?

Click on the link to read Student Takes the Fall for Teacher’s Incompetence

Click on the link to read Let’s Just Scrap ‘Teacher of the Year’ Awards

Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management

Click on the link to read When Something Doesn’t Work – Try Again Until it Does

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Student Takes the Fall for Teacher’s Incompetence

October 19, 2012

This sounds extremely harsh to me:

Students from an Indiana middle school have been suspended after viewing a nearly nude photo of their teacher on a school-issued iPad that had synched with the woman’s iPhone.

Joshua Troutt, 13, and three other Highland Middle School students from Anderson, Ind., have been suspended after seeing a topless photo of their teacher, according to Fox 59.

“It just showed up of our teacher with a bra on, but most of her breast showing,” Troutt explained to Fox 59. “I never thought of seeing my teacher like that.”

The topless photo appeared on the iPad because the teacher’s iPhone reportedly synched to the tablet. “We couldn’t do anything not to look at it, if it just popped up when he pressed the button,” Troutt told RTV 6. “It was her fault that she had the photo on there. Her iPhone synched to it. She had to have pressed something to make all of her photos synch on there.”

Detective Joel Sandefur said that “since the material was not pornographic in nature and no other criminal violation could be gleaned from the evidence as presented, the matter was turned over to the school and the police investigation closed,” according to RTV 6.

Troutt claims that he and the other students asked for permission to use the school-issued iPad.

Assistant Superintendent Beth Clark said that the Indiana school has a handbook with guidelines on how to use school technology, and those guidelines were followed, KSDK reports. However, Troutt and the other students were suspended and face expulsion for seeing the nude photo.

 The boy’s mother, Nicole, said she thinks the repercussions are “very unfair” and alleges her son “never even touched [the iPad].”

Click on the link to read Should Teachers Be Allowed to go to the Beach?

Click on the link to read Let’s Just Scrap ‘Teacher of the Year’ Awards

Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management

Click on the link to read When Something Doesn’t Work – Try Again Until it Does

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Posted in Professional Conduct | 2 Comments »

Let’s Just Scrap ‘Teacher of the Year’ Awards

October 16, 2012

This time it’s a two-time winner of what should be a prestigious award, but is all too often won by the very worst teachers imaginable:

Raemon Matthews, a nationally regarded history teacher at Samuel Gompers High School in the Bronx, has been barred from the classroom for sexual wrongdoing involving students.

An investigation by the New York City Department of Education found that Matthews intimidated a 17-year-old female student into posing for explicit photos in a classroom cage that was used for storage. The educator was found to have engaged the teen in inappropriate activities, including fondling her breasts and private areas as well as posing for the photos under the pretense of “attract[ing] college recruiters and employers,” the New York Daily News reports. Matthews has pleaded guilty to sexual abuse.

The teen reportedly attempted to stop the sessions once, but was told, “no, bo-boo, we’re just getting started.” She didn’t pursue the issue because she was afraid “he would hurt or fail her.”

Matthews also encouraged the student to “look sexier,” and he had to “see more” of the scantily clad teen for the supposed college portfolio, the New York Post reports. The wrongdoings surfaced in late 2010 when a custodian found the photos on a CD.

“It was hard for me — it was like a big trauma,” the now-20-year-old told The Post. “I didn’t want anybody to know because I was embarrassed.”

News of the scandal come especially as a surprise as Matthews had been working in New York City schools since 2000, and was nationally known for his methods and effective teaching. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige praised the educator during a visit to the school in 2002, resulting in a trip to the capital for Matthews to demonstrate his interdisciplinary lessons and use of multimedia in the classroom.

Matthews’ employment of brain exercises and memory tools has also received national acclaim. A 2008 Associated Press report points to the educator as an example for improving student performance through memorization techniques, as an overwhelming majority of Matthews’ students at the predominantly low-income, minority school regularly pass the global and history geography state exams.

He is also a two-time city-wide Teacher of the Year. And in a school where 90 percent of students are below average in math and reading, Matthews’ teaching of memory techniques have resulted in a 100 percent passing rate for the New York state academic skills test, while 85 percent of his students scored 90 or higher, according to Psychology Today.

Whilst this is only alleged at this stage, it surely puts into question the merit of these types of awards. I am happy for teachers to be recognised for the good work they do, but these awards seem phoney to me.

Click on the link to read Should Teachers Be Allowed to go to the Beach?

Click on the link to read Why Patience is a Key Quality for a Teacher

Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management

Click on the link to read When Something Doesn’t Work – Try Again Until it Does

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Posted in Professional Conduct | Leave a Comment »

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