Add this to the list of things that bureaucrats don't understand about teachers' lives.

So here's a situation.

A parent requested a conference with a teacher I know during conference time. This parent began yelling and gesticulating wildly during the conference, until the teacher asked the parent to leave. By the way, the teacher in question is so calm, he's practically a reincarnation of the Buddha. Parent stormed off and went to an administrator and made a bunch of wild claims about the teacher and then stormed out of the administrator's office.

So far, not all that unusual, right?

Here's where it gets interesting: the parent's kid approached the teacher a few days later, accused him of threatening the mother, and then threatened to attack the teacher. This was done IN FRONT OF WITNESSES.

Wow. Makes Race to the Top seem kind of insignificant and out-of-touch, doesn't it?

The assumption that students are all here to learn, that students are all cooperative, sane, and non-violent, is just not a part of the reality of teaching in a public school. That goes for parents, too.

And it's certainly true that the majority of students and parents do not behave this way. But this kind of family is becoming ever more common. There have been more assaults or threatened assaults on teachers of my acquaintance this year that any year that I can remember since I started teaching school back in the 1980s.

Now, luckily, the student has been suspended from school for the maximum allowed time, which is good, since it is known that the family has guns in the house. It is good to know that the administrators took this seriously.

So maybe Arne Duncan has some advice about this situation from his vast well of educational experience? If so, I'd like to hear it.

Are you prepared for an emergency?

I have a medically fragile student this year-- a great kid who tries so hard to overcome insurmountable odds-- but I got him at the last minute, so have been kind of playing catch up (studying up on his illness, reading his very very long IEP, making adaptations since the IEP hasn't kept up with his condition, etc.). The other day he suddenly started bleeding from his nose while I was working with another student. And very quickly we had several problems.

It all ended okay-- one kid let me know what was happening, the kids all stayed calm, he stayed calm, I stayed calm, we all tried to distract him as another kid found paper towels. I called the nurse (thank GOD for nurses!) who came very quickly.

But I just want to say to you, Edusphere friends, it reminded me of a few things.

Please make sure you have the following items in your classroom, even if you DON'T have medically fragile students:
1. Non-latex gloves, several pair
2. Spare trashcan liners in which to dispose of biohazard waste
3. Gauze pads
4. Bleach wipes

Then, here's the first aid for a nosebleed (advice directed to the person who is bleeding):

1. Tilt your head downward toward your chest, NOT back (tilting your head back causes blood to flow down your throat where it could make you throw up or possibly aspirate it into your lungs). Place something beneath your nostrils to absorb the blood-- gauze, but at least a paper towel or a clean cloth if you can get it.

2. Place pressure with the last joint of your thumb and forefinger on both sides of your nose below the bridge-- think of it as a pincer movement rather than a pinch.

3. Breathe through your mouth calmly.

4. Maintain pressure for several minutes. If you feel faint, try to lower your head toward or below your knees and call for help.

You never know when you might need to know this stuff.

Reciprocity

According to federal law, students have definite privacy rights. However, teachers who work with students are allowed to know information regarding student discipline and behavior. Somehow this second part gets lost a lot among many administrators. I believe that this tendency is extremely counterproductive if not potentially dangerous not just for the teacher involved but for other students.

Case in point: A class was discussing youth law issues, and the school behavior guidelines and district policies regarding the possession of weapons was exhaustively discussed. In the midst of several hypothetical scenarios, a student wanted to know what would happen if, upon coming to school, he realized that he had his weaponry and ammunition from a weekend hunting expedition still within his vehicle upon arriving at school. He (and twenty-two other students in the class) was told that he should approach the school resource officer and immediately let that officer know that weapons had inadvertently been brought to school, and the officer would then secure the weapons so that the student would not potentially face severe consequences for his oversight.

One week later, this same student was caught with weapons upon school property. Oh, and drugs, but that is neither here nor there. His teachers were informed that the young man was suspended but not why.

One week after that, the teacher involved in the discussion was informed about why exactly the young man was suspended. This teacher then informed the assistant principal about the conversation. Here is the assistant principal's response:

"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?????"

Let's see, because the teacher had no idea why this kid was suspended. Because the AP failed to follow the law. Because the AP treated her staff as if they are not professionals who should be kept informed because she didn't trust them as professionals. Because if teachers reported every single conversation held in class, nothing else would ever get done. Because there is obviously an adversarial situation being created by the AP in regard to her staff, rather than a cooperative one.

Credit the teacher with gently pointing this out.

By the way, this same teacher was berated by another AP for not disclosing that a kid who lives in the teacher's neighborhood who was suspended was thrown a party by her mother in celebration of said suspension.

Until school administration works with the teachers rather than against the teachers, the school will never function well. Administrators need to value teachers as colleagues and acknowledge that teachers spend far more time during the day with the students and have all kinds of knowledge that could be a resource for the administrators in the effective discharge of their duties.

It just requires reciprocity and respect.

I hope this is an April Fool's prank.

Have you heard about this one?

A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.

The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.

"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don't know."

The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said. A prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.

School officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school, Tanner said.

Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher, Tanner said.

Nine children have been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school system. She would not be more specific but said none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.

The purported target is a veteran educator who teaches third-grade students with learning disabilities including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.

The scheme involved a division of roles, Tanner said. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, he said. Another was supposed to clean up after the attack.

"We're not sure at this point in the investigation how many of the students actually knew the intent was to hurt the teacher," Tanner said.

The parents of the students have cooperated with investigators, who aren't allowed to question the children without their parents' or guardians' consent, he said. Authorities have withheld the children's names.

Police expected to forward the results of their investigation to prosecutors, Tanner said.

Children in Georgia can't be charged with a crime unless they are at least 13, District Attorney Rick Currie said.

Martin told The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville, Fla., that administrators would follow school system policy and state law in disciplining the students.

"From what I understand, they were considered pretty good kids," Martin said. "But we have to take this seriously, whether they were serious or not about carrying this through, and that's what we did."

Four mothers of other third-grade students at Center Elementary called for the immediate expulsion of the suspected plotters.

Stacy Carter and Deana Hiott both cited school system policy stating that any student who brings "anything reasonably considered to be a weapon" is to be expelled for at least the remainder of the school year.

"We don't want our children around them," Carter told the Times-Union. "The one with the knife could have stabbed my child or someone else's child at lunch or out on the playground."

"This is an isolated incident, an aberration. ... We have good kids," Center Principal Angie Coleman told the newspaper.

Absolutely appalling. Someone is very lucky that this fell apart.

And I hope that these kids get help. Further, however, I hope that they are not able to transfer to another school without this incident remaining in their records for the sake of others.

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.

V for Visine, A for Assault

And then there's this, from Wyoming.

Police in Cheyenne say a junior high school teacher was hospitalized Monday after a student put Visine eyedrops into her drink as a prank.

Police identified the victim as 58-year-old Jo L. Miyamoto, a teacher at Johnson Junior High.

She went to the emergency room for treatment, spent the night in the hospital and was released late Tuesday.

A school receptionist said Miyamoto was back in the classroom on Thursday.

Police say that some popular movies have shown that spiking a person's drink with Visine is just a prank that can give the person diarrhea.

However, police say ingesting Visine in fact can have very serious health effects, including possibly sending the person into a coma.

Police say they intend to have the Cheyenne District Attorney's Office review the matter when their report is complete.

Okay, one? what movies are these people talking about? I know I don't get out much, but jeez....

Two-- never leave your drink unattended in your classroom. A colleague of mine recently had a kid spit in his coffeecup while he had his back turned. Luckily, the other students in the class violated the "no snitchin'" credo and immediately warned him before he got anywhere near to drinking out of it. But still-- Oh. My. God.

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.

Privacy rights?

I got some distressing news the other day, and it's only because I badgered it out of a counselor. One of my students has been sitting in my class for over a month, and I was not informed that he hears voices and sees menacing presences who follow him around most of the time. This boy is a wonderful young person who is intelligent and thoughtful, and remarkably in control-- he simply asks to leave the room when he feels overwhelmed and goes to a safe room in the school.

It doesn't matter how I got suspicious-- let's just say I observed a strange episode that made no sense when he was leaving another teacher's classroom.

I am nonplussed, to say the least. Apparently, his guardian does not want his teachers to know, and has insisted that his 504 simply say that he is "depressed."

How is it legal or ethical for this information to be deliberately concealed from me? How is it legal to put a lie on a 504? I have read FERPA. Here's what I found on the Ed dept website, since I began to question myself as to whether I remembered the law correctly.

"Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31): School officials with legitimate educational interest;" etc.

Is a teacher who spends an hour or more a day with a student not a school official with a legitimate educational interest? How can I be expected to educate this young man if a condition of this magnitude is considered none of my business? Elsewhere on the Ed dept website, I found this:

"As first enacted, FERPA contained five exceptions to the prior written consent rule for disclosures to...other school officials, including teachers within the educational institution or local educational agency who have legitimate educational interests. The 1974 amendments clarified that the agency or institution determines which school officials have "legitimate educational interests." The 1994 IASA amendments added a requirement that the specific educational interests of the child for whom consent would otherwise be required are included among legitimate educational interests of school officials.

"The 1994 amendments also clarified that nothing in FERPA prohibited an agency or institution from disclosing information about disciplinary actions taken against students to teachers and school officials, including those in other schools, who have legitimate educational interests in the behavior of the student. The No Child Left Behind Act amended the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to require each State to provide an assurance to the Secretary that it has a procedure in place to facilitate the transfer of disciplinary records regarding a student's suspension or expulsion to any elementary or secondary school where the student is enrolled or intends to enroll."

So here's the conclusions to which I have come:
1. The concern for the safety of this student has been sacrificed, since he has been placed with educational professionals throughout the day who have been willfully misled about conditions which definitely can cause him to harm himself or others.
2. The concern for the best and least restrictive education for this student is endangered, since the educational professionals who work with him every day are willfully deceived about his condition.
3. The concern for the safety of other students is not even considered, which is a violation of their rights.
4. The concern for my safety has been abrogated, which is a violation of my rights.
5. Apparently the powers that be in my school (assistant principals, principals, counselors) believe that I and my fellow teachers are not professionals with the best interests and intentions toward our students.
6. These people have decided to willfully misinterpret and misrepresent the law since they feel no obligation nor concern for anyone involved... merely because they fear a legal challenge, probably?

And before you think I am jumping to conclusions, let me emphasize that this is far from the first time I have caught these people at my school engaging in such behaviors as concealing and lying about student discipline and/or diagnoses, whether it involved one of my students or even when it involved a student behaving in a threatening manner toward me personally. I have had referrals not returned to me and referrals "lost" in some amazingly coincidental snafus. I have never been anything but circumspect and above-board in my dealings with the behavior, discipline, and education of my students.

I am grateful that nothing bad happened while I am in the dark. I will continue to teach, guide, and care for this student no matter what.

But some other people are on my list right now.

Should teachers be armed?

So I was reading the Carnival of Education #28, and read a thought-provoking post which you can find at http://ticklishears.com/?p=82 (Someday, my browser may let me do all those nifty techie things on this blog, but for now I apologize for the lack of formatting).

Seems a teacher/blogger suggests that in a post- 9-11, post-Columbine world, we need to accept reality that SWAT teams don't work and that teachers should be armed. The author states that terrorists intend to strike soft targets, and US schools, being not very secure, are ripe for a Beslan-type attack. He also states that police are reactive, not proactive, as the slow bleeding death of teacher Dave Sanders at Columbine proves that the police response model is outmoded and ineffective. He cites the fact that Israeli teachers are armed, and claims that that is why there are no school attacks in Israel any more.

So should teachers be the ultimate line of defense? Here are my thoughts.

I have some experience with firearms. I could be certified to carry a weapon if I chose to– I can load, unload, clean and accurately fire a weapon. I am completely comfortable with them, and am in no way squeamish around them.

I also possess the unique skill of being able to convince kids --either with words, commanding voice, or as a last resort, physical leverage-- to stop fighting. Don't get me wrong-- I am a friendly, open person who never raises her voice in the classroom. I am not some thuggy crone who scares the bejeezus out of kids. But, for some reason, I am good at separating junior pugilists, often without having to touch them. It must some kind of subconscious teacher voodoo vibe, like those whistles that only dogs can hear.

Do I choose to own a weapon? No. They don't make me feel safe. I don't think you can get a feeling of safety from having access to a thing. I feel safe because I trust myself and my inner resources. And besides, I have small children who want to eat off mommy's plate, drink out of mommy's drink, and play with mommy's toys. If I did have a gun around, there's no way it would be either loaded or unlocked, no matter how much the NRA claims that they successfully teach kids to go get an adult if they see a gun. This means that, by the time I've got a gun in firing condition if I DID have a need to kill some hopped-up intruder, it would be far too late to use it. And I was taught not to pull a gun out unless you feel a necessity to kill someone with it.

The kind of situations I have encountered in my career certainly have not come close to that standard. The author of the blog I read stated that, during a shooting at a high school in Pearl, Mississippi, a few years back, the assistant principal credited with stopping the shooter used a gun he ran and got from his car, and that the mainstream media hid this fact. Well fine. If true, he got lucky. But it's very possible he could have gotten the shooting to stop in other ways. It's also possible he could have been shot by the assailant even with the gun in his hand.

I currently study two different martial arts– one which includes striking, and one which includes grappling. Not because I am some strutting tough tomboy, but because I need to get in shape and because I enjoy the discipline involved. It also doesn't hurt to add these skills, though, now that I'm getting older, I admit.

Do I use these skills when I monitor troublesome areas in my school? The awareness of one’s surroundings and the projection of a calm, confident mien, yes. But strike or choke a student? No. And the odds are incredibly great that I will never encounter a situation like those at Columbine in which striking or harming a student would be necessary and even, in my opinion, required. And yet it is suggested that I and my colleagues should carry guns.

In a violent or potentially violent situation in a school, we should always seek to use the least amount of force, and once you introduce lethal weapons, you are tacitly upping the ante of teacher response in lesser situations.

When I break up a fight among students, (it’s very rare, but I can do it and have done it over my career) I use the skills and reflexes and open yet commanding demeanor I have honed to assess the situation, and use the least amount of force possible. My main response in a violent situation is neither to watch idly while one kid busts open another kid’s head, nor to bust open a kid’s head myself, but to TRY TO PREVENT PEOPLE (myself included) FROM BEING FURTHER HARMED. (And of course many other teachers and the NEA disagree and tell me not to intervene– fine for you, but I have to live with myself. I do admit I am still a bit resentful of the big strapping male colleague who stood softly chanting "stop, stop" while I did the Heisman on two fighting teens a while back, especially since I had just returned from maternity leave, but that's another story for another day.) How would that dynamic change if I had a .357 strapped to my hip?

One should use a gun when one wants to use the greatest amount of force to resolve a situation, not the least amount. Having teachers carry weapons would be a mistake, for a number of reasons.

1. Most people with access to weapons, being reasonable, law-abiding citizens, hesitate to pull the trigger, but they don’t hesitate to pull the gun out, hoping that the perpetrator will be dissuaded by the mere sight of a weapon. Instead, what happens all too often is that the weapon then gets taken away from them after a violent game of “chicken.” So now the perp has TWO weapons. And if he’s really determined, there’s already a dead or wounded “hero” on the ground– because the perp is NOT a reasonable, law-abiding citizen with deep, unacknowledged doubts about his own ability to use violence. We cannot assume that most teachers really have the will to kill, if necessary. That’s why we’re teachers, not cops.

2. Oh, but killing isn’t necessary, you say. Just shoot to disable or wound. But most people don’t have the training to do this, and they know it. Even the police have a less-than-perfect record at this, which is why both cops and civilians hesitate to pull the trigger in the first place, as mentioned previously– reasonable people know and recoil from the permanent consequences of sending that projectile irrevocably down that barrel.

As my gun-loving Uncle “Roy” taught me when he taught me how to use a gun, “Honey, if you pull out your weapon against some threat, you need to know you’re going to use it, and use it until it’s empty.”

And even if teachers were willing to do so, we don’t have hours a week to spend training ourselves to become this skilled– we’re already drowning in a plethora of tasks just to try to educate our students.

The blogger I read noted that the Supreme Court held in the case of Castle Rock v. Gonzales in 2005 that the police have no legal obligation to intervene in a violent situation (Yep, you can look it up at http://www.law.duke.edu/publiclaw/supremecourtonline/certGrants/2004/casvgon.html). If police response is inadequate to handle a potentially lethal situation at a school, it is not the job of teachers to take on the task of being the armed presence to deter violence. Likewise, let me emphasize that I choose to intervene in fights and scuffles at school, but there is NO WAY in our current litigious society that any teacher could be required to do so. And having just some teachers carrying weapons certainly wouldn't be a good idea.

And, finally, I can't seem to say this enough: there has to come a point when society realizes that schools cannot be all things to all people– we can’t be community centers and therapists and year-round cafeterias and social services providers and barbershops and planned parenthood clinics and daycare facilities and at the same time pretend to be focused on education. The more we dilute our attention away from the main mission, no matter how noble the cause, the more we make sure we won’t be good at ANYTHING, especially the all-too-difficult attempt to encourage the attainment of skills and knowledge by our young people. And packing heat is in no way related to my attempts to encourage learning; indeed, I would say it would greatly detract from my main goal.

Jonesboro Murderer Released

One of the two murderers who killed five-- four students and a teacher-- at a Jonesboro, Arkansas middle school in 1998 will be freed today, and his record now bears no evidence that he ever committed any crime.

He can even buy a gun, since he is not officially a felon.

I guess we should be grateful he was held until his twenty-first birthday. At the time of his sentencing, local authorities speculated that, due to lack of space, he would probably be released when he was 18.

As posted on KATV.com:

"Jonesboro, AR - A 21-year-old Arkansas man will be released from prison after serving time for his role in a school shooting that shocked the nation. The story is one no one in Arkansas forgets.

Back in 1998, 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson and 11-year-old Drew Golden waited in the Westside Middle School yard in Jonesboro during a prank fire alarm and then opened fire on the exiting students.

Thursday, Mitchell Johnson turns 21, and because Arkansas had no laws to impose life sentences on children convicted of murder. He will be set free.

Five people were killed…four of them young girls, and one teacher, Shannon Wright.

(Mitchell Wright, victim’s husband) "I got to the campus and a friend of ours who went to church with us stopped me and told me that Shannon had been shot."

Mitchell Wright says the experience was surreal and recounts having to tell his two-year-old son his mother was killed.

However, on August 11, Wright says the pain of losing his loved one will be renewed with the release of Mitchell Johnson. Johnson's mother says her son is reformed after spending seven years in prison.

She says he's truly sorry for what he's done and has even expressed interest in becoming a minister. However, other victims say it’s not enough.

Johnson's mom says her son will move from Arkansas after his release and likely enroll in college."

Let us all remember Mitchell Johnson's victims. In addition to ten wounded, murdered were:
Natalie Brooks, 11
Paige Ann Herring 12
Stephanie Johnson, 12
Brittheny R. Varner, 11
Shannon Wright, 32, the mother of a 2 1/2-year-old son, died later after surgery for wounds to her chest and abdomen. Students said the teacher stepped in front of a sixth-grader as the shots rang out. The student was not hurt.

Let's hope he remembers them, too. Every minute of every day for the rest of his life.