If this is a ‘minor incident’, I hate to see what a major one looks like:
A teacher of a co-ed government school in Gaighata in North 24-Parganas took off the leggings of a 13-year-old girl in the classroom on Wednesday because she was not in proper uniform. The girl wept and pleaded but the teacher allegedly did not return it even after school was over, forcing her to walk home in a semi-clad state. Headmaster Swapan Bala dismissed it as a “minor incident”. “We came to know of it only a day later. It is not a serious matter. Some people are unnecessarily making an issue out of it. The teacher has apologized. We shall take a final decision on Friday,” Bala said on Thursday.
If the Principal and teacher were stripped of their clothing in public, would that be a ‘minor incident’ too? (I am not advocating this of course, I am just trying to make a point!)
“The court has banned and ordered the dissolution” of the Martijn organisation, a spokeswoman for the civil court in the northern city of Assen, Luta van der Leij, told AFP.
The court said in a statement Martijn glorified sex with children as “something normal and acceptable, or as something that should be.”
“The court finds lobbying for these rights is a grave infraction of the values of our society,” it said.
Dutch prosecutors on May 16 in closing arguments called for the organisation — which has been around since 1982, to be banned and dissolved.
1982? That’s 30 years! What took so long? This group should have been banned within 30 seconds of its inception, not 30 years!
When a nasty Facebook page that invites children to bully others is “flooded” by students of a particular school, isolated punishments is not enough. The most important step in this circumstance is to investigate the school’s culture and ask the following question:
Why, with all the awareness about bullying, are our students engaged in spreading rumours and making sexual taunts?
GEELONG students have flooded a Facebook page built to spread sexual taunts, rumour and nasty gossip.
The page victimising students from years 7 to 12 at Oberon High School features swags of hurtful, bullying comments.
A parent said she became distressed after stumbling across the Facebook page earlier this week.
She said her child had been bullied at the school and she feared others would suffer emotional and social effects similar to her child.
“When I got on to the page and I just felt totally disgusted and really horrible because half of the kids on this page I know and you couldn’t get sweeter kids,” the woman, who asked for her identity to be withheld, said.
“They’re the kids that won’t speak up and say this is wrong so somebody has too.
“These types of things can have serious effects on kids.”
Oberon High School is investigating the page with acting principal Elizabeth Kelly saying the school, which was made aware of it on Tuesday, was in the process of speaking with students.
I am glad that the school has not washed their hands of this incident. They have a lot of work to do.
A newspaper story and video of George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School shop teacher and security dean Stephan Hudson manhandling freshman Kristoff John, found its way to the front cover and website of the Daily News today, months after the March 6 attack, which left John with a sore back and a reputation as the aggressor in the incident. Indeed, John’s mother, Diane John, was told her son attacked the teacher and that they were doing him a favor by not disciplining him—and she took the word of Hudson and school officials over her son, who insisted he did nothing wrong and didn’t deserve the beating. John later transferred out of the school and, eventually, his mother sent him to his native Grenada to live with relatives.
But when the Daily News showed Diane John the tape, she was absolutely shocked and is now demanding the police and the city’s Department of Education investigate the incident. “They lied to me!” the betrayed mom said tearfully when The News showed her the clip for the first time. “No one wants to see their son taken advantage of and beaten like this.”
The policy of banning the application of sun block at school has been exposed as a complete and utter failure. When teachers are applying lotion on themselves and making comments about how the children are burning up, it becomes clear that this policy, as well-intentioned as it may have been, is cruel and must be repealed.
Michener says school officials have promised her the sunscreen policy will be changed by fall, thanks to a change in state law that gives schools new leeway on handling over-the-counter drugs. Shannon McMinimee, a lawyer for Tacoma Public Schools, said in an e-mail that the school board was expected to review the policy but would need to seek guidance from state officials and health experts first.
But sunscreen rules are common. They typically stem from state and local policies that stop kids from bringing any drug — including non-prescription drugs — to school, says Jeff Ashley, a California dermatologist who leads an advocacy group called Sun Safety for Kids.
Sunscreens are regulated as over-the-counter drugs, so many districts treat them like aspirin, just to be safe, he says.
It time for all schools in all states to follow California’s lead. This is a bad policy. Change it now!
A high school teacher who branded her students ‘frightfully dim’ and ‘lazy whiners’ on a scathing blog has finally been fired for her ‘unsatisfactory performance’.
Natalie Munroe’s blog garnered nationwide attention when it was discovered by her students in February 2011, and she was suspended.
The English teacher was allowed to return to Central Bucks High School East in Philadelphia, but her classes were monitored by other staff.
Now the school board has dismissed Munroe, who taught 11th grade, by a 7-0 vote based on a year of class observations.
‘Ms. Munroe was, at best, a satisfactory teacher and was experiencing performance difficulties well before her blog became an issue,’ the board’s president, Paul Faulkner, said, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Perhaps Ms. Munroe could entertain becoming a professional blogger.
I found the court ruling in this case quite extreme. I can’t work out why this mother wasn’t granted granted supervised contact with her children on the condition that she undergo ongoing therapy for her mental illness:
TO the outside world she was a loving mum who had a very sickly young son.
But after 115 New South Wales hospital visits in three years, she has been banned from contacting her nine-year-old child – and his three siblings – before they turn 18 amid grave fears that her behaviour could lead to one of them being harmed or even killed.
The “extreme” order was made after the Children’s Court heard the woman showed signs of Munchausen syndrome by proxy – a form of child abuse where parents repeatedly invent illnesses for their children because they crave attention and sympathy. She denies the claim.
The mother has also been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder.
In the first case of its kind in the state, the court heard that while obsessing on her eldest child she neglected the others – aged three, six and seven – describing them as “side salad”.
Child experts referred to them as “forgotten children”.
When a court bans a parents of all contact with their children they need a very good reason.I am not convinced the reasoning here warrants the severity of the ban.
Do you believe this mother was harshly dealt with?
Last month I wrote about Lynden Dorval, a teacher suspended after 35 years of service for daring to challenge a moronic rule that says you can’t give a zero grade. This includes situations where the students fail to complete or even give in their assignments.
Today I read that the suspension may well turn into a sacking. It seems that principal Ron Bradley isn’t thrilled that Dorval didn’t leave any lesson plans for the substitute teacher. Who in their right mind would expect a suspended teacher to provide the school with lesson plans?
Tell me Mr. Bradley doesn’t sound like an infant fighting over a crayon in this exchange:
Lynden Dorval was told in a letter he received last week from Ron Bradley, principal of Ross Sheppard High School, that he is facing termination.
After criticizing Dorval for not returning unmarked exams, assignments and lab reports after he was suspended — and not leaving lesson plans for his replacement — Bradley informs the physics and science teacher that his job is on the line.
“I find it utterly reprehensible that you would sit on these exams and assignments for weeks without alerting the school,” Bradley wrote in the letter, which is dated June 18th.
“Your behavior is unbefitting a professional. It is also ironic in light of your very public pronouncements about your concern for the welfare of your students.
“Your habitual refusal to obey lawful orders, your repeated insubordination, and your obvious neglect of duty force me to consider recommending termination of your teaching contract with Edmonton Public Schools.”
Out of ten, I give Bradley’s handling of this situation a …. zero!
More horrible news that will taint our wonderful profession:
A Southern California high school teacher has been arrested on suspicion of directing students to assault another student in a classroom hazing incident.
Fontana police said Sunday that 27-year-old Emmanuel De La Rosa, along with four other students, were arrested on Saturday.
Police alleged that De La Rosa facilitated some students to carry out the hazing to curb behavioral problems in the classroom at AB Miller High School. Police declined to describe the nature of the hazing, citing the ongoing investigation. At least one student suffered minor injuries.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports (http://bit.ly/Ocffl5) that an 18-year-old student arrested in the case faces charges of assault, child cruelty and attempted sodomy.
De La Rosa was booked for investigation of child endangerment.
Jiang Xiaoshan died from exhaustion on June 19 after reportedly staying up every night to watch the Euros with his friends.
After watching Italy defeat the Republic of Ireland, the 26-year-old fan went back to his home in Changsha, took a shower and fell asleep. Mr Xiaoshan never woke up.
Technology addiction is a universal problem and one of the signs that one is addicted is sleep deprivation. We are seeing an increase of exhausted kids in the classroom. Part of the reason for this is children have access to televisions, computers and smartphones in their bedrooms. This often results in late nights and a lack of concentration during the day.
“Cellphones, Facebook, iPods and video games are keeping kids up later at night. And the literature is suggesting it’s getting worse, not better,” Collop says.
At the AASM annual meeting in June, dozens of studies were presented indicating school performance is dropping because of student sleepiness, Collop says.
“There’s more and more information showing insufficient sleep affects cognitive ability, and emotional and physical well-being,” says Dennis Rosen, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Program at Children’s Hospital Boston.
About 25% of children overall experience some type of sleep problem, ranging from difficulty falling asleep and night wakings to more serious primary sleep disorders. More than a third of elementary-school-aged kids and 40% of adolescents have significant sleep complaints, according to AASM.
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