Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for March 1, 2009 SNAP!

You've been pushed to the edge many, many times...

As a presenter told us during an in-service at CJSHS one day..."Students know where your goat is parked." (As in...they certainly know how to "get your goat"...push your buttons...make you "go off".)

Some of us could definitely "empathize" with one frustrated math teacher in Texas...

However, as you have learned the hard way...abuse in the public schools is a one-way street. Students can call you anything but a child of God. (Thou shalt not allow religion in the public schools!) You (oh, assaulted teacher) have the right to remain silent! You have to stand there and take it, chanting to yourself that the student was "simply having a bad day"...sereptitiously hoping that the student at least gets a detention this time.

So...do NOT let your sweet, innocent children push you over the edge...

Your classroom may be "bugged"!

Cussing at students gets El Paso teacher suspended

By Zahira Torres
El Paso Times

EL PASO — An El Dorado High School teacher has been placed on paid suspension after a student used a cell phone to secretly record him apparently throwing a temper tantrum, screaming, cussing and scolding students, officials said Friday.

The recording, obtained by the El Paso Times, has a male teacher using obscenity and berating students.

He tells them that they are “constantly whining, constantly (expletive) about your (expletive) (expletive) situation. If you don’t like it, get the (expletive) out.”

The name of the teacher, who was sent home Thursday after administrators learned of allegations that he cussed at students, was not released because of an ongoing investigation, officials of the Socorro Independent School District said.

A parent of a student, however, said the incident happened during a freshman algebra class.

According to officials, a student left the classroom to report the situation to a campus security guard, who then turned the information over to administration.

“Because it is a personnel issue under investigation, we cannot provide more specific details about the alleged incident,” district spokeswoman Vicki Icard said in a written statement to the El Paso Times. “The district takes all allegations of teacher misconduct/inappropriate behavior very seriously. The teacher involved has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.”

J. Gonzalez, the parent of the student who recorded the teacher, said the incident was not the first for the teacher.

Gonzalez did not want to give his full first name for fear of retaliation against his daughter, who told him two months ago that the teacher had used profanity in the classroom. Gonzalez said that incident was reported in an e-mail to campus administrators but nothing was done.

“I don’t yell at my kids,” Gonzalez said. “I think I get my point across pretty well, and for her to be yelled at like that by a stranger, as far as I am concerned, by her teacher, she never experienced that from any other teacher.

“Maybe it was directed at the whole class, but she was part of the class. That’s why she took it personally, too, and that’s why she got scared,” Gonzalez said.

“She got real nervous. They had to take her to the nurse’s office because she started hyperventilating a little bit, and I know that when something like that happens, there is cause for alarm,” the parent said.

The recording, which lasts several minutes, also has the teacher telling the students, “(Expletive) kids grow up, have some common sense. How many times do we have to do this, huh?”

Some of the recording is muffled, but the profanity is clear. The teacher apparently was frustrated and trying to make a point that students were not doing their work. He seemed to lose control.

“This can be so fun, yet you can’t understand that we have to work first. You haven’t done jack all week,” the recording says. “I can show you. Your work, man, is pathetic.”

District policy does not specifically address consequences for a teacher who is caught using profane language toward students, but the state code of ethics, which is followed by the district, says that “the educator shall not knowingly treat a student in a manner that adversely affects the student’s learning, physical health, mental health or safety.”

When an incident of teacher misconduct is reported, the administrators share the information with Child Protective Services, and if necessary, the district’s attorneys, officials said. But officials would not say whether any other agency is looking into the matter.

Representatives from the Texas Education Agency said educators are in a position of public trust and yelling and cussing at students violates that trust.

“We certainly want teachers to act in a professional manner and cursing at students does not meet that level of professionalism,” said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. “It’s highly inappropriate.

“School districts have codes of conduct for their students, but to be honest, I am not sure if they have them for their faculty,” Ratcliffe said. “There are certain things that you expect (from teachers), even if they are not written down.”

Glenda Hawthorne, president of the Socorro Education Association, which represents thousands of educators, said she was not contacted by any teacher from El Dorado High School about the incident.

District policy states that “if the results of an investigation indicate that prohibited conduct occurred, the district shall promptly respond by taking appropriate disciplinary or corrective action reasonably calculated to address the conduct.”