Teacher abuses students, teacher gets removed, teacher gets suspended, teacher loses job …. or not.
… the district sought to have O’Neill fired, arguing that her treatment of four profoundly disabled students was a “flagrant violation of her responsibilities as a teacher.”
While finding that O’Neill got rough with her students — including hitting them on the head with water bottles, kicking a student and pulling the skin off the lip of another — arbitrator Mark Lurie said because the district knew about O’Neill’s behavior but never disciplined her for her misconduct or even gave her a verbal warning, she could not be fired. The decision cannot be appealed.
First of all hitting, kicking and pulling the skin off the lip of a student qualifies as a little bit more in my book than “got rough”. Secondly, she can’t be fired because she wasn’t given a warning? Seriously?
Isn’t there anything in the teacher guidelines about not abusing students?
If this occurred on the playground between two students, would the bully be acquitted and not punished because this was a “first offense” and he hadn’t been warned?
Here’s my question, if they put her back in the classroom and she hurts another student … this time someone that can speak and testify … who’s most accountable?
- The school who couldn’t fire her?
- The arbitrator who agrees she was “rough” but shouldn’t be fired?
- The state for letting her teach?
- Ms. O’Neil … oops, sorry of course it’s not HER fault
Also what happens if the next student she hits isn’t quite so passive or disabled and attacks her …. maybe getting a little “rough”, you know ….
- A couple of whacks to the head
- A couple of good kicks
- Maybe enough abuse to cause the loss of a tooth
- Smacks across the face
Will that student get the same benefit of the doubt?
Can they argue self-defense since the teacher is a known abuser?
