Recent news reports suggest that teachers with the power to impact the emotional well-being of our children is a topic on everyone’s mind.
The question has now been raised, should a teacher have free reign to punish or administer consequences to a child without parental permission?
There has been a whirlwind of news surrounding a 6 year-old elementary student in Southern Oregon who was punished in front of his entire class because he was tardy.
I think we can all surmise that if a youngster is chronically late, through no fault of his own, and especially in this case, the issue should have been taken up with the parent, and not the child; especially before any consequential action was taken.
It seems the breakdown in communication started with the teacher. Surely, the youngster might have told his teacher( if she inquired), that his mom was driving him to school and that his family was having car trouble. That is, if he even knew. If this 6 year-old is anything like my six-year old, the possible and reasonable answer from him might have just been “I don’t know why I’m late”.
Perhaps as this is investigated further, issues will come to surface inquiring if a students parent should alert the school by phone when they are having car trouble or expect to send their child in tardy. Did the school know there were possible family health issues? Possibly a note should have be sent to school with the child, however, all that said, and regardless of speculation, it is never appropriate to shame a child, isolate a child, or make a child the center of attention in a negative way.
Without knowing all the facts, whether Mom or Dad had or had not explained any health or transportation issues to the school, it is my opinion that the school still had a responsibility to contact the parent(s) long before ever administering any consequence for the child’s actions. As this incident shows, the circumstances were clearly beyond the child’s control.
Perhaps teachers should be required to have a clear understanding of what punishment and consequences are acceptable, and what is considered reasonable. Both the child and the parent(s) should be made aware of a list of possible offenses and what the consequences will be prior to any action taking place. Period.
As adults, we all have had those moments where a teacher embarrassed us, made us look like a fool in front of the class, or rejected our ideas. Some didn’t believe our stories when we were telling the truth, or in some cases, they just plain didn’t like us.
The influence of a teacher is enormous. The end result to the child, as you may know first-hand, is a life time of insecurity and uncertainty. Perhaps one isolated incident won’t make or break a child, however, if the school has a history of allowing teachers free reign, then perhaps, what we think of as an isolated incident, is just an awakening to a bigger problem, one that we are just now becoming aware of.
Let’s hope that together the school and parents will communicate better moving forward and that this is a wake-up call to teachers everywhere to “stop, look, and listen”.
Courtesy of: Heidi Silverman
This story is the opinion of the writer and does not reflect the opinion of OHN
If you have a rebuttal or a news story to share send it to:
info@oregonhealthnews.org