Tell me this isn't so. Is it a coincidence that the below article came out the same day as my previous post?
Thanks to The Gradebook for the below link:
Hillsborough County kindergartner traumatized after being taped to desk, lawsuit says - St. Petersburg Times:
According to the article, Mr. Murman is the HCPS school board's attorney. I can just hear the water cooler, er, uh, texting discussions that must be rampant throughout the district: "Could the attorney be advocating that a student disobey the authority of a teacher who tells the student to "sit!"?"
"'Your client could have stood up since the tape was not truly a restraint,' Murman wrote. The teacher said the tape was in place for only two minutes, he said, and was used to keep her sitting during 'quiet time.'"
Times aren't good. Apparently this issue has been going on for over two years. Parent bashers will no doubt point out that the parent is acting just like the kid. System mockers will ask where were the professional behavioral supports.
Who wants to wager that a simple apology would have taken care of this issue two years ago?
No winners for either "side".
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2 comments:
I wonder how the teacher was disciplined, and if the incident was handled as harshly as that of Goader's.
I doubt it.
About a day after I wrote this post, I had a new thought. It is pure speculation, but based on years of experience. Since anon 6:09 made their comment, I figured I might as well share my thought.
I agree with anon that the teacher was probably not disciplined, because to have done so would have been to admit "guilt", and therefore "liability" by the District. There is a good chance that the District attempted to minimize the issue, parse words and obfuscate the facts that were established.
Over time, these tactics usually make the parents more angry than they were about the original event. The more the parent simply wants to know the truth, the more clever the defenses become.
My other guess is that the District quietly put everyone on notice that they are not to be tying kids up. My next guess is that Goader didn't get the message prior to going into the new classroom assignment because he was transferring sites. Since this previous case was still "alive", it would really be bad for the District if another one occurred. So, Goader was taken out. All pure guesswork on my part.
Although the District is quick to label events as "isolated incidents", they are loathe to treat individual incidents on their own merits. That is why zero-tolerance policies have caused problems for Districts because they have to use extreme consequences or blatant disregard for what could be "minor" events if they were dealt with justly and with reason for all parties.
Just my two cents.
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