One of the biggest social movements right now is the anti-bullying campaign. Everyone agrees that there should be no tolerance of kids bullying kids. But what about teachers who bully kids? I can remember a few teachers who never really grew up and who ridiculed kids in their classes or allowed bullies to victimize their prey in class. I never really understood this phenomena. Shouldn’t teachers know better? During my time as a teacher I came to realize that there were many teachers who went into the teaching profession because they were popular in school and were not equipped for adulthood outside of school. These teachers dressed like the students, acted like the students, and their classes were generally the easy goof-off classes. Maybe you have met some of these teachers. They give the dedicated teachers who are in it to make a difference a bad name and a hard time.
Yesterday I watched a YouTube video detailing how a teacher and teacher’s aide bullied a 10 year-old boy with autism. What I heard in this video left me feeling angry and disheartened. The video is long at 17 minutes, but I recommend that you listen to the whole thing. I have a sister who has autism and the thought that this might have happened to her at some point in her school experience makes me sad. How common is this? Are special needs students more susceptible to this kind of treatment because they have less ability to clearly tell what has happened to them? Watch the video and let me know what your reaction is.
About Janice
I will need to come back and watch this later, but I can completely relate to what you are saying about the popular kids who became teachers. They sure do make it hard for the rest of us!
The idea of a teacher as a bully is disgusting. I don’t think those teachers deserve a second chance if they are caught treating a student poorly. School should be as safe, or more safe, than home for students.
My heart hurts so badly for this little boy and his father. I know this happens A LOT, EVERYDAY in our society to kids like Akian. There is a book called “Mommy I wish I could tell you what my teacher did to me at school today” by Ricky Stripp that details the extent that this occurs to special needs kids primarily non-verbal kids. It is a heart wrenching read but one that is necessary for us all to hear. Thank you for posting this. It is so important to talk about. I may try to gather my thoughts for my own blog post on this, I’m not sure I can simmer down my ire enough.
ALL of the adults in that classroom should be fired and if they have a license, it should be taken away! That is so so disgusting and cruel.What is wrong with some people?
This was one of the most horrific misuse of power that I have ever heard. What is so up-hauling is the number of “adults” that were laughing in the background. They should all be fired!!