Professional courtesy during Educator Appreciation Week-- an impossibility?

I emailed a question to a support staff person in my favorite support department three weeks ago. This person still has not deigned to reply.

Anyone else have similar experiences?

Yes, darn it, now turn that phone off!

Created by Train Horns

I HATE that sound! Our students like to use it as a cell phone ringtone. The last time one went off in my classroom, I nearly rocketed through the ceiling tiles.

Smile, Teach! It's Candid Camera!

A kid in a St. Louis 'burb pulls out his cameraphone in a classroom and surreptitously takes pictures of his teacher and posts them on the net. He then gets disciplined.

You KNOW there's more to the story:

Seven grainy classroom photos of a Lafayette High School teacher posted on the Internet by a student are at the center of a federal lawsuit that tests the limits of school discipline in the cyber age.

The suit alleges that school officials violated Logan Glover's constitutional rights of free speech and free expression when they disciplined the sophomore over the incident.

But school district officials say the case is about controlling classroom behavior, not placing a lid on a student's right to communicate online.

"The taking of photographs and posting them on the Internet is not necessarily wrong," said Rockwood Superintendent Craig Larson. "It's the disruption that this caused that prompted us to act."

The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. It also names the boy's father, Jerome Glover, as a plaintiff.

Mark Sableman, a prominent First Amendment attorney with the downtown firm of Thompson Coburn, filed the suit on the Glovers' behalf. He asserts that the photographs were taken during a free-time period and did not disrupt instruction.

"The Glovers believe that the school district took action against Logan because it did not like having the photos posted on (the online social network site) Facebook," Sableman stated Thursday in an e-mail. "The First Amendment and prior cases are clear that school officials do not have the right to discipline students for content they post on the Internet outside of school."

The Glovers, of Wildwood, could not be reached for comment.

Named as defendants in the suit are Lafayette Principal John Shaughnessy and two associate principals, Kirti Mehrotra and Jodi Davidson.

According to an affidavit by Shaughnessy, Glover and two classmates disrupted a language arts class on Nov. 20 when they surreptitiously took the pictures last month of teacher Jessica Hauser.

After school that day at his home, Glover posted the pictures on his private Facebook page. According to the lawsuit, he did not post captions with the photographs, or identify anyone in them.

The suit claims Glover removed the photos on Dec. 6, when school officials confronted him about them.

Glover got a three-day, out-of-school suspension and was permanently barred from Hauser's classroom.

The other boys involved each got three days of in-school suspension. They are not parties to the suit.

"My sense is that there were two disruptions," Larson said. "Taking pictures without the teacher knowing it and sending two kids up there to waste her time. And then there was a later disruption generated when kids started talking about it and showed her (Hauser) the pictures."

The photos show the teacher working at her desk with students nearby. She is handling paperwork as she speaks with two male students. In one picture, a boy gives a thumbs-up to the camera while Hauser looks away.

Hauser could not be reached for comment.

Larson said the incident upset the teacher.

"She didn't know the intent of the pictures," Larson said. "She wondered, 'Why did you do this? What are you trying to do to me by posting these images?'"

The incident highlights the emerging dilemma that the Internet poses for schools. Cyber-bullying, students posing online as teachers, and postings of students engaged in illegal behavior, including taking drugs and drinking, have forced schools to push discipline policies beyond the schoolhouse walls.

"Kids are so good with technology that it's like they're always one step ahead of teachers," said DeeAnn Aull, a spokeswoman for the Missouri chapter of the National Education Association. "And sometimes that technology can be misused."

Hauser's class included a teacher from the Special School District who worked with Glover, who was in the district's Individualized Education Plan under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

According to the suit, the school does not have a substitute class that meets Glover's special needs.

Larson said the district would find a suitable class for the student.

"He's being moved at the teacher's request because she felt like her trust with him was pretty clearly violated," he said.

Peter Jay, a law professor at Washington University, said the case would hinge on whether the district properly articulated its policies regarding use of cameras.

Jay said: "Absent a clearly articulated and regularly followed school policy, my impression is that a student would have a right to take photos of a teacher in the classroom."

Does a student have the right to take photos of teachers?

Technically, our school requires phones to be turned off during the school day, but this is rarely enforced. And I know for a fact that video of my colleagues that is much the same as the above images has been posted online.

Right or wrong? You make the call. Is this a free speech issue? Before you decide, consider this, in which a teacher was accused of being a member of deviant group I shall not name because of Google (I am not going to explain that one):

NORTH BEND, Ohio -- A Web site entry created by three high school students has led to lengthy suspensions and a federal lawsuit.

The Taylor High students are accused of creating an entry in November on Facebook.com, a social networking site, that included the face and last name of a teacher. It referred to him as a "pedophile" and said he belonged to a group that supports sex between men and boys.

The teens were suspended for 10 days and will be expelled for another 80 days after the holiday break. A federal judge ruled this week that the students could remain in school for the time being.

The students said they created the entry in their homes, on their own time, and access was limited to seven people. They claim violation of free speech rights.

The students and their parents filed suit after the Three Rivers School District's school board voted last week to uphold their punishment.

"Each of the boys has written an apology to the teacher and questioned whether they exercised their best judgment," said their lawyer, Marc Mezibov. He said the school district is overstepping its bounds.

The district said there could be school disruptions and harm to teacher morale. The school's principal said that 14 teachers have asked that their photos be removed from the district's Web site since this incident.

The teacher picture on the Facebook site was copied from a district site.

The case will return to court on Dec. 28.

There have similar cases across Ohio and the country, said Scott Greenwood, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney. Courts have been ruling that students can't be punished by schools for such off-campus acts and that such suspensions violate free speech, he said.

Unbelievable. And so I guess the fact that ONLY seven kids (supposedly) could see the page (HA!) makes it all a violation of the STUDENTS' rights. I am sure no one at school ever commented or thought of it. And I am sure a written apology compensates for the damage done to this man's reputation and dignity.

Confiscation of iPod leads to broken neck

There are no words for this. No words. From the Philadelphia Enquirer via our beloved QuakerDave:

Assaulted teacher is worried for students
By Mari A. Schaefer

Hooked up to tubes and monitors, a metal brace drilled into his skull to immobilize his broken neck, Frank Burd worried how his students would fare on state tests next month now that he could not be there to help them.

"I want them to do well," said the 60-year-old math teacher from his bed at Albert Einstein Medical Center yesterday.

The popular Germantown High School teacher was critically injured Friday after he took an iPod from a student during class. He told the teenager that he would return it after the period.

When Burd went into the hall at the change of classes, two students assaulted him, officials said. He was either pushed or deliberately tripped. Burd fell into a locker, striking his head and breaking his neck.

A security camera caught the assault, but Burd has no memory of the event, which also lacerated his scalp, leaving him in "excruciating pain" and "very exhausted."

What he does remember is music "so loud I couldn't teach."

Burd, a New York native, "simply can't believe" the assault occurred, he said. He was in intensive care and heavily sedated, but still able to joke with his visiting brother, Bill.

"I've defused a lot of fights," said Frank Burd, who explained that he always tried to get students to look at "the bigger picture" to solve their problems.

Two male students, who have not been publicly identified, have been charged as juveniles with aggravated assault and related charges, police said. One is 17, the other 15.

Paul Vallas, the district's chief executive, said yesterday that the two students would not return to Germantown High. The courts may determine where they end up, he said.

"This is the most serious incident I have had here in five years," Vallas said. He said he spent a few hours at the hospital yesterday talking with Burd about Germantown High and teaching philosophy.

Bill Burd, 52, of Elkins Park, received a call about 20 minutes after the assault and went directly to the hospital, he said. Doctors said early on that his brother's spinal cord was not injured. "It was a great relief," he said.

He said his brother was involved in the school's yearbook and theater program, and was the school's unofficial photographer. "He is a born teacher," Bill Burd said.

Frank Burd, who has four sons, said he would have a 41/2-hour operation Wednesday. A piece of his hip will be removed and implanted into his neck to repair the damage. At that point, the halo brace he is wearing will come off.

The web of metal rods is drilled into his skull in four places. He will still have to wear a less-sophisticated brace until the injury heals.

Burd said he did not know when he would be able to return to teaching.

"He is really dedicated," Vallas said. He said Burd had called over to the high school from the hospital Friday to let the students know how he was doing. "He didn't want his students to worry."

The tests Burd is worried about are the important PSSA examinations, state-mandated tests used to measure performance in the classroom.

Vallas said Burd's students were very upset about what had happened to their teacher.

"They like him because he cares about them and really has a bond with them," he said.

Vallas said that "never once" did he hear Burd lash out at the two students accused of injuring him.

Notice that he is concerned ABOUT HIS STUDENTS AS THEY PREPARE FOR HIGH STAKES TESTING.

Wow.

Kudos to district officials for proclaiming that those two thugs will not be back to Germantown High. It's actually for their own good-- when I once had a kid take a few swipes at me as I tried to stop a melee, even though he never laid an actual finger on me, there were six or seven young men whom I had to assure I was all right and who were quite incensed that someone would try to harm me. Luckily, and for reasons beyond his trying to flail at a teacher, he never returned to our school-- even though he ended up experiencing no consequences thanks to Assistant Principal Plea Bargain (AP PB claimed he didn't remember from the videotape that the little blister tried to whale on me multiple times-- and he conveniently also forgot my re-enactment for him, and did I mention he "lost" the referral?). The young fella's parents actually approached me in the hallway hours later and HUGGED me -- after I had already had enough physical contact with their offspring to last a lifetime, thankyewverrrymuch! What bothered me about the whole thing was that the young man has no record of having attempted to assault a teacher. But students who observed the whole thing were incensed.

Mr. Burd luckily did not suffer any spinal damage. I can't imagine, though, that that surgery at the age of 60 is going to be a cakewalk. God bless him. He is in my prayers for a swift recovery.