Just Amazing...

[Samandiriel]

EAST LYNNE, Mo. - Seven of 10 classroom teachers in a tiny school district resigned after a colleague was fired for helping an 11-year-old girl who was left alone in a playground to pick up rocks as punishment.



The fourth-grader in the East Lynne School District in Cass County was assigned the task last September for refusing to do her schoolwork, but she was unsupervised except for a security camera. The playground was near a road but inside a fence.

The fired teacher, Christa Price, went to the principal — who is also the district superintendent — and asked him to reconsider the punishment, but he wouldn't. So on her free period, Price helped the girl pick up rocks. Other teachers watched the girl the next day.

At contract time in March, Superintendent Dan Doerhoff recommended firing Price, a popular teacher who had had good performance evaluations, for insubordination. Seven other teachers then chose not to return their contracts.

"If a teacher who advocates on behalf of safety of a student is not fit to be a teacher at East Lynne or anywhere in Missouri according to this administration, then none of us are fit to teach at East Lynne," the teachers who resigned said Tuesday in a statement.

One of the teachers who resigned, Jenny Neemann, said having a security camera on the area where the girl worked wasn't enough.

"Somebody could have nabbed her in 10 seconds," she said.

Doerhoff has since dropped the practice of rock punishment because of the uproar, but he insists it wasn't that strenuous. The rocks were left over from some drilling work.

The school district has already filled most of the jobs left vacant because of the resignations, Doerhoff said Wednesday.

The girl, whose name was not released, told The Kansas City Star that the assignment "made me feel like a slave." Her mother said she and her husband had agreed to the rock-gathering punishment, which was the only alternative Doerhoff gave them to suspension.

"I love this woman," the mother said of Price. "What happened to Christa is beyond belief."

Doerhoff also refused to sign the certification renewal that Price needs to get another teaching job, saying doing so would have been inconsistent and "could put me in a pickle."

Jim Morris, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the department's Kansas City-area supervisor has offered to speak to certification officials on Price's behalf.

Price said she doesn't regret challenging Doerhoff.

"The first thing I told her when I went out there was, `Don't fill the bucket so full,'" Price said.

 

[Dar~]

I would have resigned too. That is a jacked up punishment. Leaving an unsupervised child outside a school. If that were my kid I would have sued the school board.

I assume that if my child is at school that she is safe and in a group w/ an adult present at all times.

I also think her parents arae a bit messed up. . .lets see, the choices are Suspension at home with the parents or . . unsupervised picking up rocks on a playground. . . Hmm which would you choose.

 

[rgraham666]

I'm going to take a moment to puke.

 

[Guest]

I wonder what they did with all the rocks. I'd like to drop them on the superintendants head from a 10th floor window.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

When I was eleven years old, the principal assigning any punishment would have been better than my father finding out I wasn't doing my school work.

~lucky

 

[Dar~]

Yeah, Lucky. I guess I can agree. What gets me, is that the parents chose to let her be unsupervised picking up rocks rather than to have her home safe with them.

Ps: My dad beat the shit out of me for almost any reason. If he had found out I told a teacher I wouldn't do my schoolwork I may no tbe here. Thankfully, save one dumbassed student teacher, my teachers knew that.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I guess my point was that I felt ill reading the parent's quotes. The school staff would have never had to take actions to punish me, because my parents would never have accepted me slacking off on school work. Additionally, had the principal decided to administer such a punishment, my parents would have rejected it outright. All of my punishments were tailored to the situation. If I had a foul mouth, I had to come up with three positive things to say for every ugly thing I had been heard saying. If I didn't do my homework because I wanted to play instead, my folks created assignments on top of my homework so I was occupied at the kitchen table for several evenings when playtime was optimum. When I fouled up on the same offense repeatedly, I wrote thousands of sentences to help remind me that my behavior was unacceptable.

Needless to say, I was a very well behaved child most of the time...and when I wanted to misbehave, I was very creative at keeping it on the down low.

Anyway, the point is that nothing about that article makes any sense when it comes to promoting the kind of behavior they wanted from the girl. What do you think she learned from that? I didn't do my school work. They say school work is important so I can learn things. I'm now picking up rocks day after day when I could be doing my homework and learning stuff, but apparently it's more important to get these rocks picked up so I can feel like a common criminal and hopefully, at age 11, apply this rotten physical labor scheme to my future career if I do not sit down and do my homework.

Sorry, I think it's stupid through and through.

~lucky

 

[rgraham666]

Yeah, Lucky. I guess I can agree. What gets me, is that the parents chose to let her be unsupervised picking up rocks rather than to have her home safe with them.

Ps: My dad beat the shit out of me for almost any reason. If he had found out I told a teacher I wouldn't do my schoolwork I may no tbe here. Thankfully, save one dumbassed student teacher, my teachers knew that.

Taking another moment to puke.

 

[Samandiriel]

If that happened to me all I know is my mother when have been down to that school faster than lightening and when she got done with the principal and superintendent they would have been in the fetal postion sucking their thumbs.

 

[Liar]

1. From that article, I can't see that the parents knew that she'd be alone and unsupervised, so I wouldn't blame them for that at least.

2. I would, however, blame, sue, spam, spank and fire the pricipal. He may or may not punish students in odd and unusual ways, he is still responsible for the safety of them. He obviously failed that. This should be tried in court, and imo qualify as criminal neglect.

 

[Guest]

Irresponsible, uncaring *&%@!!!!!

Some people don't have a bloody clue. Good on that teacher who looked after the girl and stood up to the principal, and those other teachers who supported her. It's good to know that there are plenty out there who do take their responsibility very seriously indeed.

As for the parents, it's not something I would have agreed to (not in a million years), even if I was under the impression she'd be supervised. That kind of punishment is antiquated and I'd want to deal with reprimanding the child myself - as Lucky pointed out: in a way that was somehow positively (in my mind) linked to her "misdemeanour". No playing out (or doing whatever she enjoys in the evenings) until she has caught up with her schoolwork, and then some. Not that it would ever get to that stage, as I keep myself informed as to how they're doing at school, and actually talk to them about their day when they get home. Ok, so my kids are younger, but it's all relative.