Good Afternoon,When I describe hostile encounters with students like this one, my standard rhetorical question is to ask what would have happened to this student in, say, 1959, if she had exhibited the same behavior that she did to me yesterday? It's called EXPULSION! No ifs, ands, or buts. In today's topsy-turvy, largely responsibility-free world, I will be astonished if this student actually gets even one day of the out-of-school suspension that I requested she receive.
During the passing period before the start of 8th period, I heard a commotion right outside my classroom that sounded like a fight brewing.
I got out in the hallway just in time to see the potential fight beginning to subside, but the two girls who were having words were still facing off at each other. I identified one student as *****, who I have as a student during 3rd period. I did not know the other female student with whom ***** was facing off. As soon as I got between the two students, ***** turned around and walked away without a word, but the other student continued to taunt *****, saying over and over again something to the effect of, “That’s right, Bitch,” or “You better walk away, Bitch.”
Due to her profanity and her efforts to make a fight still happen, I walked up to this student, showed her my ID tag, and told her to come with me. The student refused and began walking away from me. I followed her down the hallway and again identified myself as a staff member at this school and then asked her to identify herself, as I didn’t know who she was. The student refused to give me her name. I repeatedly instructed the student to not walk away from me and to tell me her name. The student repeatedly refused. In all, I asked the student at least 15 times to tell me her name, and she refused. The only things she said in response to my request was, “Get away from me,” and “I ain’t tellin’ you my fuckin’ name.” By this time, the student was walking down the outside stairwell on west end of the building. I couldn’t follow her, as my classroom door was open and my 8th period students had already begun to enter. As the student continued to walk down the stairs away from me, I informed her that her refusal to identify herself to a staff member at this school could get her suspended, and her response was to tell me, “I don’t care; fuckin’ suspend me then!”
As I entered back into the west side of the third floor, I met up with Mr. *****. I asked him if he knew this student, but he said he hadn’t caught a glimpse of her. At that point, he ran down the west end stairwell in an attempt to catch up with her. On my way back to my classroom, one of my students told me that the student with whom I had been dealing was named “*****nique.”
This was later confirmed by many other of my 8th period students, and then Mr. ***** himself, who confirmed that the student’s full name is *****nique ********.
*****nique’s repeated refusal to identify herself to me (in spite of the fact that I repeatedly identified myself as a staff member at this school), and her use of profanity directed toward me and the other student with whom she almost fought is absolutely unacceptable, and per CA Education Code Section 48900(k), I request an appropriate punishment be administered to *****nique *******; namely an out-of-school suspension.
Regards,
W.R. Chandler
Social Studies Teacher
Nameless Middle School
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson
6 comments:
The question of what would have happened in 1959 is indeed interesting and strictly rhetorical because a student would NEVER have done that in 1959. It simply did not happen. I began high school in 1958, and did not ever even hear the "F" word until I was in college. I had no idea what it meant until it was explained to me. I know: different time, different place, different century, different world. Too bad!
You may disagree but it was a sad day when corporal punishment was taken out of schools. Kids are learning today there are no bounderies.
Vicomtesse,
Were I king for a day, one of my first decrees would be to reinstate corporal punishment in our schools.
Dear W.R.,
I truly wish I could bring you into the halls of an international school, if only for a day. We deal with NONE of this. Polite, hard working students are the norm, and this sort of behavior would indeed result in an expulsion.
Best of luck with the rest of the year!
woodes34
I'm guessing you will be sent to the rubber room.
I toy with the idea of doing foreign exchange teaching in Britain, but from what I read things aren't so ducky there, either.
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