Posts Tagged ‘professional conduct’

Should we Continue to Give Out Teacher of the Year Awards?

January 1, 2015

lori lassmann

This story isn’t just about a teacher supposedly falling from grace but yet another example of an award that isn’t as useful as it may seem:

 

A former Teacher of the Year in Jackson County is facing discipline after being drunk and passed out at school.

Lori Lassmann and the staff of Florida’s Education Practices Commission have worked out a settlement in which Lassmann does not admit any wrongdoing, but she also is not contesting the allegations made against her.

If the EPC accepts the settlement at its meeting next week, Lassmann’s teaching certificate would be suspended for two years, and she would be on probation for two years.

She must also undergo substance abuse counseling and testing.

On October 29, 2013, Lassman was apparently intoxicated in front of her first grade students at Golson Elementary.

When she failed to pick up her students at their physical education class, other teachers went to check on her.

They allegedly found her passed out in a chair, and it took vigorous shaking to wake her up.

Lassmann refused to take a sobriety test, and left the school. She resigned three days later.

 

Click on the link to read The Things Some Teachers Think They Can Get Away With

Click on the link to read I Would Like to Write “Fired” on This Teacher’s Forehead

Click on the link to read Hugging Students Should be a Crime Not an Excuse

Click on the link to read PE Teacher Caught on Camera (Video)

Click on the link to read Sometimes You Need to Expect Rudeness

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Hugging Students Should be a Crime Not an Excuse

December 9, 2014

 

hugger

If I was a lawmaker or judge I would look to enforce 2 laws regarding teachers who act inappropriately with their students. Firstly, I would have a minimum jail term for a teacher found to have sexual relations with their primary/high school students. A teacher would be imprisoned even if the relationship was consensual and the child was  of legal consenting age. And secondly, I would create explicit guidelines for how teachers should act towards their students. In these guidelines I would ban hugging and kissing and provide protocols for teachers to ensure that when they are alone in the classroom with a student the door is left open. Some may find these rules too tough and unfair, but I am sick of hearing about cases of teachers molesting their students. It makes me sick.

And to use the unacceptable act of hugging as a justification or excuse has to be stamped out for good:

He’s a hugger.

A former teacher at a Brooklyn elementary school who’s charged with fondling nine girls as young as 8 told cops he “gives and receives hugs from his students,” court records revealed Monday.

Omil Carrasquillo, 36, pleaded not guilty to a 22-count felony indictment that upped the number of alleged victims, which stood at five when he was arrested in September.

“This is a disturbing case in which a teacher allegedly groped young girls,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson. “This defendant is an alleged predator who surrounded himself with vulnerable victims. What should have been a safe haven instead became a parent’s worst nightmare.”

A science teacher at Public School 249 in Kensington, Carrasquillo is accused of inappropriately touching the girls, ages 8 to 11, on numerous occasions between November 2012 and September 2014.

“He will give the girls and boys a hug if they have done something good or they will come and hug him,” a detective wrote in a police report following the Sept. 24 arrest. “Mr. Carrasquillo states that it is possible that when he touches the children it may have been misunderstood how he touches them.”

The former teacher also said he sometimes stood behind the kids when explaining class work and “will put my arms on their backs or on their shoulders.” He added that he broke up a fight that week and “probably touched” a girl in the process of restraining her, the report said.

A judge raised his bail in light of the new allegations to $200,000 from $50,000. The defendant later made bail and was released.

 

Click on the link to read PE Teacher Caught on Camera (Video)

Click on the link to read Sometimes You Need to Expect Rudeness

Click on the link to read Do We Learn Enough From Children?

Click on the link to read Kids as Young as 7 Diagnosed with Anorexia

Click on the link to read The Destructive Impact of the “Fashion Police” Brigade

PE Teacher Caught on Camera (Video)

November 22, 2014

Whilst some teachers are getting fed up with the growing trend of being secretly filmed in class, such a practice has uncovered incidents of abject cruelty and criminality.

Take this horrible story for example:

 

A high school gym teacher in California is facing charges after being caught on camera dragging a 14-year-old girl into a swimming pool.

Students took out their cell phones and filmed as Stockton, California, physical education teacher Danny Paterson grabbed the teen girl by the arm and dragged her from the ground into the pool. The girl had reportedly refused to go into the pool because she had plans that night and didn’t want to mess up her hair, but Paterson didn’t seem to care and decided to force her to swim.

In the shocking 95-second clip, the girl can be seen flailing and kicking her legs in the air as the teacher grabs her and begins to drag her into the pool. As she screams to try and get him to stop, she can, at one point, be heard yelling to the educator that her bathing suit top was coming off.

 

Click on the link to read Sometimes You Need to Expect Rudeness

Click on the link to read Do We Learn Enough From Children?

Click on the link to read Kids as Young as 7 Diagnosed with Anorexia

Click on the link to read The Destructive Impact of the “Fashion Police” Brigade

Click on the link to read The Plus Sized Barbie Debate Misses the Point

Biology Teachers Should Never Resort to Rabbit Torture in Class

November 16, 2014

 

rabitt

I’m sorry, but if my science teacher did this I wouldn’t have respected a thing he said or did after that:

 

An Idaho biology teacher is facing possible disciplinary action after killing and skinning a rabbit in class to show students where their food comes from.

Nampa School District spokeswoman Allison Westfall says the teacher killed the rabbit in front of 16 students by snapping its neck on Nov. 6 at Columbia High School.

The rabbit was then skinned and cut up in front of the 10th graders.

Westfall says the demonstration isn’t part of the biology curriculum.

She says students who didn’t want to view the lesson were allowed to leave ahead of time.

The teacher’s name hasn’t been released.

 

Click on the link to read Stop Letting Teachers Walk Free From Their “Inappropriate Conduct”

Click on the link to read The School Camp Two Teachers Will Never Forget

Click on the link to read We Are Too Soft on Teachers Who Have Sex With Their Students

Click on the link to read Why Teaching and Politics Should not Mix

Click on the link to read Abusing the Privillege of Teaching Children

Stop Letting Teachers Walk Free From Their “Inappropriate Conduct”

October 13, 2014

diane brimble

I’m sick of reading about teachers who are free from jail time for either having sex with their students or trying to. The message sent by not imprisoning a teacher who tries to have sex with her 10 year-old student is appalling. It says that if you want to engage in that sort of conduct the penalty will be minimal.

 

A primary school teacher who wanted to have sex with her 10-year-old student, and had his name tattooed on her chest, has walked free from court.

County Court judge Mark Taft said he was at a complete loss to understand why mother of eight Diane Brimble, 47, had engaged in “such utterly inappropriate conduct which must dismay every parent”.

“You breached the trust reposed in you by [the boy’s] parents who properly expected that a classroom teacher would care for their son in a professional manner,” Judge Taft said on Thursday when sentencing Brimble on a two-year community correction order and 200 hours of unpaid community work.

Click on the link to read The School Camp Two Teachers Will Never Forget

Click on the link to read We Are Too Soft on Teachers Who Have Sex With Their Students

Click on the link to read Why Teaching and Politics Should not Mix

Click on the link to read Abusing the Privillege of Teaching Children

Click on the link to read Teacher Allegedly Has Cocaine Delivered to School

We Are Too Soft on Teachers Who Have Sex With Their Students

September 18, 2014

 

awful

Every day there are new reports of teachers caught engaging in sexual affairs with their students. And these are only the ones the have been caught!

I want a message sent loud and clear to the teaching fraternity that this kind of behaviour is extremely serious and wont be tolerated. I want mandatory minimum sentences for teachers that are found to be engaging in sexual relationships with their students. Even if they are consensual and even if they are no longer considered a minor. It is abhorrent and should be dealt with accordingly.

But it was love!

It was consensual!

It was just an innocent fling!

No excuses! Teachers have a responsibility to act with dignity and common sense.

 

Click on the link to read Why Teaching and Politics Should not Mix

Click on the link to read Abusing the Privillege of Teaching Children

Click on the link to read Teacher Allegedly Has Cocaine Delivered to School

Click on the link to read Dealing Softly with Bad Teachers Sends the Wrong Message to Students

Click on the link to read Up to 1 in 10 US Students Have an Inappropriate Relationship With Their Teacher

Teacher Suspended for 10 Days for Grabbing a 6-Year-Old By the Neck (Video)

May 18, 2014

 

barb williams

How is this a fair and reasonable punishment for what this teacher did? What kind of deterrent is a 10 day holiday for this appalling behaviour? And I have to ask this question, if it were a male teacher that did this, would he have got off so lightly?

 

An Ohio kindergarten teacher has been suspended for ten days after surveillance video appeared to show her grabbing a six-year-old boy by his neck.

The boy’s parents, Anthony and Autumn Nelson, were shocked at the school’s response to the footage, which showed their son Ian being lifted off the ground by his shirt collar.

Teacher Barb Williams was put on unpaid leave, but the Nelsons are calling on her to be fired from the school district where she has taught for 14 years.

Williams is seen on surveillance footage appearing to confront Ian as he comes out of a bathroom at Riverdale School.

As the little boy walks out of the bathroom, Williams allegedly grabs him and lifts Ian in front of a wall.

The teacher then appears to grab him by the throat, tilting his head back and forcing him off his feet.

In another shot, Williams appears to have grabbed the boy’s shirt and used that to lift the terrified boy off the ground.

‘We thought it was just a little incident that happened.That’s what the school made it sound like. All of a sudden, we get this video today and this is just outrageous,’ Mr Nelson said.

The incident came to light when a member of staff at Riverdale Schools in Hancock County reported Wiliams.

Seeing the way their child, who was left bruised, had been treated has been upsetting for the Nelsons, who were given a copy of the footage by the school on May 7.

 ‘I just started crying. I burst out in tears. I called my mom. I called his mom,’ Mrs Nelson said. 

She and her husband were shocked by the school’s reaction however, and are demanding that Williams be fired.

The unpaid suspension will end just as the school breaks up for the summer vacation.  

 

Click on the link to read When an Apology is Not Nearly Enough

Middle School Teacher Gives Student a Lap Dance

April 27, 2014

 

 

felicia

 

The following things make me very concerned by the completely outrageous actions by Middle School teacher, Felicia Smith:

1. How can a teacher, who is supposed to impart wisdom to her students, behave with such flagrant stupidity?

2. For a teacher to do this one wonders if she thought she could get away with it. Is it common for such behaviour to go unreported?

3. What an awful excuse this teacher provided for her inexcusable actions! Her students may have urged her on, but so what?

4. And if the lap dance wasn’t enough, she allowed this student to repeatedly slap her buttock. Not only does this contravene the basic rules for proper treatment of women, it also gives the signal that any of her other students can do the same to her whenever they see fit!

 

I just can’t get over this story:

A MIDDLE school teacher in the United States has admitted she gave one of her students a lap dance in front of the rest of his class.

Felicia Smith, 42, has been charged with engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a student, KHOU News reports.

According to a male student at the school in Houston, Texas, Ms Smith grabbed his journal and stopped him from talking to his friends as he walked into class. When the bell rang, Ms Smith placed a chair at the front of the room, and the boy’s classmates told him to sit on it.

Music started to play. Then Ms Smith gave the student a “full contact lap dance”, grinding against him and rubbing her hands all over his body. The teacher also got on her knees and placed her head between his legs, KHOU reports.

The boy says he “slapped Ms Smith on the buttocks” several times.

At the end of the dance, which apparently lasted about four minutes, Ms Smith hugged the student and said “I love you baby, happy birthday.”

When she was questioned by police, the teacher admitted to performing the lap dance, saying she did it at the urging of his classmates.

Investigators have reviewed video footage of the incident, which is being kept on file at the District Attorney’s office.

 

 

Click on the link to read When an Apology is Not Nearly Enough

Click on the link to read The Type of Teacher We Should be Glad to See Punished

Click on the link to read Primary School Teacher Catches Herself in the Act (Video)

Click on the link to read An Example of Teacher Sanctioned Torture at its Worst

Click on the link to read What if she were a Man?

Click on the link to read Teacher Allegedly Published the Grades of her Students by Writing on their Foreheads

When an Apology is Not Nearly Enough

April 13, 2014

students

A teacher allegedly threatens to send a Jewish student to ‘one of your gas chambers‘ for skipping the lunch line and the teacher’s punishment is no more than an apology!

 

One of Britain’s top public schools is the subject of scandal Sunday, after it was revealed that a teacher threatened to send a Jewish student to ‘one of your gas chambers’ for skipping the lunch line. 

The student, a seventeen year-old girl at the highly prestigious North London Collegiate School, later received an apology from the teacher in private over the remark, according to the Daily Mail.

The school has refused to identify the offending teacher, however, or what – if any – disciplinary action had been taken over the remark. The girl’s parents urged the headmistress on Saturday night to make a public statement against the anti-Semitic incident. 

“A teacher was passing by and she rushed up to my daughter and said, ‘Don’t do that or I’ll have to send you to the back of the queue or to one of your gas chambers’,” the girl’s father told the Daily Mail.

He added that several students overhead the remarks. “It was very unpleasant, very uncalled-for and very unfortunate. My daughter was shocked and upset. She didn’t say anything to the teacher at the time but all her friends expressed amazement. They kept saying, ‘Did she really say that?'”

Another student has reported the incident to the Community Security Trust, an organization which combats anti-Semitism in Britain. The organization stated that they are working with teachers and parents to resolve the issue.

North London Collegiate School is an exclusive all-girls’ school; according to deputy head Alex Wilson, between 20-25% of students are Jewish. 

The girl’s father noted that anti-Semitism has not been a problem before, nor since in the three months since the incident. 

“The school doesn’t deserve to be in the middle of a race issue. It is normally a model of correctness in these things,” he said. “But there should be an element of visibility so people see the teacher has been disciplined. My wife and  I would also like the school to make a public statement that there has been an incident and [the remark] was totally unacceptable.” 

Meanwhile, the school’s administration has remained ambiguous about what actually happened. 

“North London Collegiate School is proud of its rich, multi-cultural history and celebrates equality and diversity within the school community,” it said in a statement.

“The school was recently made aware of an allegation of an offensive statement made by a member of staff. The school promptly commenced an investigation. Having reached a determination and sought specialist legal advice, appropriate action was taken.” 

 

By letting a teacher go virtually without punishment for a racist remark we are telling impressionable children that this kind of behaviour is a somewhat minor infringement at worst.

 

 

Click on the link to read The Type of Teacher We Should be Glad to See Punished

Click on the link to read Primary School Teacher Catches Herself in the Act (Video)

Click on the link to read An Example of Teacher Sanctioned Torture at its Worst

Click on the link to read What if she were a Man?

Click on the link to read Teacher Allegedly Published the Grades of her Students by Writing on their Foreheads

Click on the link to read You Can’t Foster Tolerance With Racist Teachers

 

Primary School Teacher Catches Herself in the Act (Video)

February 27, 2014

 

I always appreciate it when a school community comes to the defense of a disgraced teacher.

It is important for us to understand that good teachers often make bad mistakes, just like good stockbrokers and company executives do. But bad mistakes in every sphere often leads to a termination of contract, no matter how much that person was regarded or liked.

Here, we have a odd case of a teacher filming herself taunting an autistic child who is stuck in a chair. This would have to be one of the most bizarre ways of getting caught being completely unprofessional:

A PRIMARY school teacher who used her mobile phone to record a 10-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome as he struggled to free himself from a chair may be fired.

Nicole McVey, who teaches the fifth grade at Oaktree Elementary School in Goodrich, Michigan, is heard mocking the youngster, asking him, “Wanna be tasered?”

Even the school principal Michael Ellis gets in on the act, telling the child: “It’s not really an emergency in their book,” after Ms McVey states that maintenance is on the way.

According to the New York Daily News, Ms McVey then emailed the incriminating video to school colleagues — presumably thinking they would find it funny — who forwarded it to school administrators.

Mr Ellis has since resigned and there are now calls for Ms McVey to be sacked. But the teacher still has the support of some parents and the incident has divided the local community.

“You hear of bullying by other students and other kids in class … but I have never had a case with teachers and administrators bullying,” the boy’s family lawyer, Patrick Greenfelder, told the New York Daily News.

Mr Greenfelder also revealed the family may take civil action against the school.

Goodrich School Board Superintendent Scott Bogner told ABC 12 that an investigation into the incident was under way.

 

Click on the link to read An Example of Teacher Sanctioned Torture at its Worst

Click on the link to read What if she were a Man?

Click on the link to read Teacher Allegedly Published the Grades of her Students by Writing on their Foreheads

Click on the link to read You Can’t Foster Tolerance With Racist Teachers

Click on the link to read The Teacher that Defended Hitler and Child Abuse and Advocated Porn

 

 


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