Teacher suspended for washing student's mouth out with soap

[True_Blue]

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) Elementary school teacher Lori Thomas was placed on paid leave for dishing out some old-fashioned discipline washing a boy's mouth out with a dab of soap after he shouted an obscenity at a classmate.

More than three months later, she is still barred from the classroom, and her frustration with the school district's own disciplinary procedures has convinced her to take to the street.

``If I can't teach from the classroom, I'll teach by example,'' read a sandwich board she carried back and forth as she picketed Wednesday outside the district's offices.

Thomas, 48, who has taught for six years at inner-city School 22, said she was stunned when a 10-year-old pupil directed ``a vile, very nasty sexual reference'' at a girl as third-graders shuffled back into class from a playground break in March.

http://cbsnewyork.com/nynews/NY--Teacher-SoapSuspe-on/resources_news_html

[Pithlet]

1. She's lucky they don't can her ass.

If anyone put soap in my child's mouth, there would be hell to pay. Detentions, writing sentences, apologizing, sending home with a note... there are so many ways to deal with that without sticking chemicals not meant for ingestion in a child's mouth. What a stupid, stupid thing to do.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

2. Fuck her. Last time I checked, soap wasn't a food product.

Fucking insane bitch.

Edit: Not to mention the assault and battery she probably committed.

[Lestat]

3. I'd open that bitch's mouth...

and squeeze a whole bottle of soap down her neck and make her swallow it all.

That'll teach the bitch to discipline my child. :grr:

[bluestateguy]

4. There outta be a law

explicitly allowing parents of children who are physically abused by teachers to come down to the school and kick the shit out of the teacher.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

5. That's a really bad idea

Is this the only circumstance under which you would advocate violence against one who commits violence, when not in self defense?

[TexasMexican]

14. I disagree...

then again I'm not a pacifist.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

17. If you advocate parents beating the shit out of teachers,

then you are not only not a pacifist, but you are also not civilized.

[LWolf]

19. Here I am.

Now we have DUers gloating and blustering over "kicking the shit out of a teacher." That's sick. Parents with that sort of mentality can educate their kids themselves. Please do. Because it sure doesn't help create a nurturing atmosphere at work.

How long before self-gratifying rhetoric like this, having become common, then becomes action? What possible constructive purpose, for children or for public education, would it serve?

Here's an offer. I'll meet anyone who thinks parents ought to be committing acts of violence to solve their problems, outside of my work hours and place of employment. You can do your damnedest to "kick the shit out of me" and see how far you get. That will show the world how bad you are and how you really put teachers and public ed in their place. Won't it? I've been teaching for 10 years, and was a school librarian for 8 years before that, and an instructional aide for 4 years before that. I can't think of a single parent of any child I've ever worked with that would support you in your efforts. But if it will make you feel bigger, go for it.

I'm sorry when I hear about a teacher abusing a student. I don't want that teacher in my profession.

I'm also sorry when I hear about a parent abusing a child; a much more common occurrence. I'm sorry when I have to deal with kids suffering from abuse and neglect every day in my classroom. Not my abuse or neglect, but their parents'. I don't want those people to be parents. I guess that makes me a different kind of "anti-choice." We don't go around advocating vigilante violence to solve that problem. Do we? Do we even offer any sort of solution to that problem?

When Bush does it, it's a horrifying way to present our nation to the world. Aggressors who rush to war in order to "punish" Saddam,or Osama, or whatever. But if a citizen does it, it's justice?

No wonder we have such a problem with bullies at school. It's the adults that are modeling how to be a bully for them.

[DrWeird]

6. If somebody did that to my kid I'd beat the crap out of him,

I'd consider it teaching by example.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

7. Your solution is illegal

Vigilante justice is never good. You should reconsider your thought process.

[DrWeird]

8. Yeah, but he'd still have it coming.

I wouldn't hurt him too bad, just enough to teach him a lesson.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

9. It was a she

And you have apparently forgotten what the police, courts and school boards are for.

Violence is not the answer.

[DrWeird]

10. Hey, I'm all for equal opportunity.

Apparently this teacher forgot about due process. Apparently she needs a refresher course, on that and why you shouldn't pick on people smaller than you.

[NEOBuckeye]

11. Actually, the kid probably deserved it.

Cut her some slack and spend some time in the teacher's shoes. If you ever spent any amount of time working with a full class of elementary-level students, you'd probably be tempted to punish the offender in a very similar way.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

12. Are you a NEOCON?

?

[TexasMexican]

13. What is it with teachers and school districts...

always overstepping thier bounds.

I'm so glad I'm out of there, it will sort of be a sad day when I have children to send to public school.

I'm going to have to make sure they dont try to violate the rights of whatever children I have.

[LWolf]

18. I'm sure not going to defend the soap incident.

But I'm damned sick and tired of hearing the world miscategorize teachers like this.

As a teacher, I can tell you that:

I AM NOT ALWAYS STEPPING OVER MY BOUNDS.

I DO NOT GO TO WORK TO VIOLATE CHILDREN'S RIGHTS.

PUBLIC SCHOOL IS NOT THE PROBLEM.

There are good and bad teachers, just like there are good and bad practitioners of anything that people do.

Starting your relationship with public education and teachers in general, or a particular class/school/teacher, with the idea that you are going to have to go to war to make sure "we" don't violate your child's rights, sets a bad precedent for the relationship. Start off on a negative, and you will end that way, too.

I could fill posts with plenty of stories of parents who neglect their kids and blame teachers and schools for their own failings. But I don't. Partly because I see it as a societal failure with bigger roots. Partly because there is nothing gained in bashing parents. And partly because I know that there are plenty of great parents out there. And even those "bad" parents love their kids. They often just don't know any better, or have the skills they need to raise healthy, well-adjusted, well-socialized kids.

[guitar man]

15. Probably a conservative

They so desire to live in the past.

[elperromagico]

16. And the kid? Well, he shot his eye out with a BB gun.