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Teacher suspended for locking violent, screaming child out of classroom

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Monster Zero

Junior Member
A Texas elementary school teacher has been suspended after she allegedly locked an unruly and potentially violent student out of her classroom. The Nevada, Texas school district placed fourth grade teacher Judy Stough on administrative leave after she allegedly prevented a boy with behavioral problems from entering her classroom.

The child was reportedly yelling, “I’m going to (expletive) kill you” as he attempted to enter the room.

“He kept banging on the door and yelling at us,” said Cheyenne Wilson, a fourth grader in Stough’s class. “I was worried but I wasn’t crying, most of the kids were crying.”

Many parents disagree with the school district’s decision and praise Stough for what she did. “She handled it like she should have,” said another fourth grader.

The school on the other hand has suspended her for allegedly escalating the incident. Several text messages from Stough to another teacher were provided to reporters. “Scares the hell out of my kids,” a text from Stough read. “One about to pee her pants.”

Parents have kept half of the students in the class home since Stough’s suspension. “I would just rather pay truancy and make sure she’s safe than send her to school and let her get hurt,” said parent Connie Wilson.

A meeting with parents and school officials convened on Thursday to discuss the incident. Some parents were angry to hear that the child in question has not been removed from the school. The acting superintendent insists that the boy had behavioral problems and the students were never in any danger.

Many parents like Brandie Bohmer want to see Stough return to her position.

“She was protecting children in that class,” Bohmer said. “In my opinion she saved all those kids …"

The superintendent commented on the situation saying, “We are aware of the threat but at no time were any students in danger. We take all comments seriously and will investigate them thoroughly.”

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/soci...tudent-saying-im-going-kill-you-out-classroom

Kinda funny seeing how that one teacher slammed the one kid and I don't think anything has happened to him yet
 
So what exactly is the course of action to take with a student who is screaming that he is going to murder people?

Yeah, that's what I want to know. It's all fine and dandy to say "You could have handled it better" but I'm not seeing this better way. Please enlighten me school officials.
 
Student says he's going to kill them.
Teacher locks him out of classroom to protect kids
Teacher gets suspended
Superintendent says there was no real danger


Either we're getting a weird side of the story, or that's one messed up school.
 
So what exactly is the course of action to take with a student who is screaming that he is going to murder people?

Call special services and an administrator.

My wife works in special services and this is exactly their protocol that they have to follow.

She's had kids that have torn up classrooms and what the teachers are supposed to do is to get the other kids out, call special services and administration, and step aside.

classroom.jpg


This is a picture she took of the damage done by a 4th grader.
 

waxer

Member
Don't know about there but quite often laws on environmental containment are strict to stop care workers etc locking troubled individuals into rooms and sitting around instead of supporting them.
Maybe its part of that.
 
Sending kids out into the hall was frowned upon in my district. I think the reasoning was they basically had free reign to run around the school and fuck shit up if they were inclined.
 

Starviper

Member
time to lawyer up and stick it to the school.

Basically. It sounds like she did the right thing. If you had let the kid in the classroom and they had made a scene, that's ruining the learning environment for all the other children. It sounds like the child had already been removed from the room and was trying to reenter.

WTF school.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
My old boss when I used to work at Target got fired when he took down a violent customer that attacked him.

Usually 'escalating the situation' means 'escalating the lawsuit situation'
 

UVG RAVEN

Banned
You're a teacher, you're responsible for the wellbeing and safety of your students. The teacher should have sent another student to go get a nurse, or any other responsible adult in charge. You can't just leave the child alone without surveillance; what of if he harms himself or others? She's pretty lucky they didn't fire her.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
My old boss when I used to work at Target got fired when he took down a violent customer that attacked him.

Usually 'escalating the situation' means 'escalating the lawsuit situation'

How the fuck is the kid getting a lawsuit out of it? OH THE TEACHER DIDN'T LET ME IN! *whine* No shit, you threatened bodily harm to her and others. *throws the case out* Dismissed.
 

Dynomutt

Member
The acting superintendent insists that the boy had behavioral problems and the students were never in any danger.

They knew but never made an attempt to better accommodate him to prevent this type of incident?

But,
The child was reportedly yelling, “I’m going to (expletive) kill you” as he attempted to enter the room.

Not saying the kid would've done it but these days can you afford to take a threat like that lightly?

One_eight_seven_ver1.jpg


Wow. Teachers have a tough job these days.
 

Jeff-DSA

Member
I feel that the teacher did a great job given the circumstances. You let that kid in and he grabs a pencil and stabs someone, suddenly you're suspended for allowing a dangerous kid into the classroom. I would rather be suspended for preventing an incident than for not preventing one.

The superintendent sounds like a real piece of human garbage. How does he know that nobody was in danger? Quit trying to make it sound like you have everything in control from behind your desk. You had a student making death threats and you're going to say that you know that nobody was in danger? Get out of here with that.
 
"the boy had behavioral problems and the students were never in any danger."

That's quite an oxymoron.

They were never in danger, they were just being threatened by a mentally unstable child. We all know that kids with behavioral problems are never a danger to those around them. It's all those normal, well-behaved kids that you need to worry about.
 
You're a teacher, you're responsible for the wellbeing and safety of your students. The teacher should have sent another student to go get a nurse, or any other responsible adult in charge. You can't just leave the child alone without surveillance; what of if he harms himself or others? She's pretty lucky they didn't fire her.

How do you send a student to get someone without them walking next to the kid threatening to kill people? Are you serious?
 
How old was the kid? 8-10 years? Can only see 4th grade being listed, sounds like a kid throwing a tantrum, but then again we have seen kids killing their parents after having their favourite toys removed.

Teachers have it rough these days though.
 
I feel that the teacher did a great job given the circumstances. You let that kid in and he grabs a pencil and stabs someone, suddenly you're suspended for allowing a dangerous kid into the classroom. I would rather be suspended for preventing an incident than for not preventing one.

She would not be suspended for that if it happened.

Again, schools have protocols that have to be followed in these cases and it seems like she is suspended because she did not follow protocol much like an employee at a bank gets fired for stopping a robber or a cashier at a grocery store gets canned for stopping a thief.
 

Jeff-DSA

Member
By the way, I witnessed a kid lose it in elementary school once. He was freaking out and yelling and the teacher made him go sit down. He ended up stabbing the girl next to him in the arm with a pencil that broke off in her arm. It was pretty much the worst thing I ever saw in school. I can still hear her freaking out afterwards when I think about that moment. She wasn't even bothering him, he just targeted her because she sat by him and he was pissed off at the world. This was 3rd grade.
 

MIMIC

Banned
I used to teach and I think that the rules are different for elementary students. With high school and middle school, you can remove them all you want. With elementary school, I don't think teachers are even allowed to kick students out (at least in my district they weren't).

But considering the circumstances (a female teacher with a reportedly violent student), I think the teacher can get a pass. I just hope that she immediately called down to the office and didn't just lock the student out without giving notice to administration. And in my experience, students with extreme behavioral issues usually are accompanied by a teacher's aide.

EDIT: Then again, the kid was just in the 4th grade....so I'm still having a bit of trouble understanding how a teacher is unable to maintain control of a kid that young. You don't even have to get physical with kids that young; a loud voice can do most of the controlling. Then again, I've dealt with crazy middle schoolers so I don't think a misbehaving elementary student would be that big of a deal.

"You're gonna kill me, you say? Shut up and sit down." lol
 

blakep267

Member
I don't think she's wrong. But also I think her staying in the classroom wasn't the right choice. She should've taken him to the principals office.

But this is assuming that she knows he has issues and has done something like this in the past. I
 
The Super is doing wrong by the teacher who acted accordingly.

It's sad, but they probably care more about getting sued by the kids family then sticking by the faculty.
 

TS-08

Member
How old was the kid? 8-10 years? Can only see 4th grade being listed, sounds like a kid throwing a tantrum, but then again we have seen kids killing their parents after having their favourite toys removed.

Teachers have it rough these days though.

Most likely 10, I would think.

And it may have just been a tantrum, but one of the students said many of the kids were crying, so I'm sure it felt like something more serious at the time.
 
I got sent to sit outside of the classroom a couple of times in elementary school, for talking too much or something. I was cool with it.
 

UVG RAVEN

Banned
Why didn't the teacher just call the school office and get the principal or some counselor?

He's 8-10yrs old. While he was destroying the whole classroom, she could have easily sent someone to the school office.
If the kid was blocking the door with a knife then ok, I understand. But that wasn't the case. Instead she chose to lock a violent, screaming kid (mentally ill) outside of the class room, unsupervised.
 

DonasaurusRex

Online Ho Champ
uhhh you aren't allowed to scream im going to fucking kill you in a public place.....good on the Teacher that kid needs to be in the special ed class with a para professional aide. Teacher can sue if they do something foolish though, early retirement.
 
A child like that probably has a BIP (behavioral intervention plan) if some sort with guidelines on how to deal with these circumstances that the teaxher must follow and apply. The teacher may have not fallen protocol in relation to the BIP which could be a reason for the suspension.
 
This is a big problem with schools. The law says every child has the right to a free and equitable education, which means that the problem students get away with everything and all the rest are effectively punished because all of the resources go to keeping the crazy one from killing people.
 

Speevy

Banned
I would have probably kept him at my desk. That's one of the positive aspects of being a male teacher. No one does stuff like this.
 
You're not supervising the child. I see the argument, this is obviously not particularly fair, but that kid could have ran through a plate glass window or something on his own.
 

Kinsei

Banned
You're not supervising the child. I see the argument, this is obviously not particularly fair, but that kid could have ran through a plate glass window or something on his own.

And he could have stabbed someone with a pencil if she let him in the class.

Assuming she called down to the administration after locking him out I feel that she did nothing wrong. The safety of the other students comes first in this situation IMO.
 
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