Teachers ‘Scared to go to School’ Due to Student Violence and Hardly Any Punishment
“There were a few days that I was scared to go to school.”
Stacey Sawyer taught 8th grade in Cape Coral, FL. Taught is the key word.
Sawyer, 55, quit her job in June due to student violence and the fact that they hardly ever face punishment.
From The New York Post:
“It was getting to the point that it was scary. There were a few days that I was scared to go to school,” Stacey Sawyer, a former 8th-grade teacher from Cape Coral, Florida, told The Post.
The veteran teacher, 55, quit last June, she said, after student misbehavior spiraled out of control following the pandemic: Fights regularly broke out, ending with teachers hit and punched, and one student allegedly hospitalized after being slammed on the ground.
“Even though I ran a really tight classroom, the disrespect just skyrocketed. Probably 75% of my time was dealing with discipline,” Sawyer said. “The stress of it was just too much. I even hated just driving down the road to school. I didn’t want to go anymore”
Sawyer taught for 30 years.
Student behavior problems began before the COVID pandemic, but those involved in schools said the shutdowns escalated the problem:
A 2022 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics found 84% of public school administrators said the pandemic degraded student behavior.
And 70% of teachers, principals and district administrators agreed the problem is only getting worse in an April survey by EdWeek.
Those are awful statistics.
But can you blame them?
New York City educators defended the students who rioted at Hillcrest High School, terrorizing a pro-Israel teacher into hiding in a closet:
But speaking at a press conference at the school on November 27, Schools Chancellor David Banks, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and student leaders rejected the charges, even as they denounced the incident and said some students would be suspended over it.
“So many of the students who were running or jumping had no idea what was even going on. They were doing what 14- and 15-year-olds do,” Banks said. “The notion that this place is radical, these kids are radicalized and antisemitic, is the height of irresponsibility.”
After the riot, Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city’s “Project Pivot teams will begin outreach with students at Hillcrest to ensure they understand why this behavior was unacceptable.”
No one holds the kids accountable.
“Now, now, Joey. That was not nice. Don’t do it again!”
Or they’ll talk about feels and emotions, coddle the students.
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Restorative Justice for the win!!
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Last week was officially “the good old days” in Portland. BTW, they weren’t that good.
When I was about 7 my parents took us to a cottage in a sparsely populated wooded area. On the way my sister and I were fighting. My dad stopped at a novelty store, He came out with a variety of items, including a stick labeled Board of Education with a picture of a little boy and girl bent over a bed with red bare bottoms. Some years later he broke that little paddle. He was a teacher at a school with a wood shop. Thye made a solid oak paddle 2′ long, 3/4 thick, smooth on one side, grooves on the other. I remember thinking I knew how much I could get away with, but misjudging thing now and then. Prior to my dad passing away he gave me the paddle, I have grandsons and they know not to step too far out of line. I don’t think paddling should be use a lot, but it does need to be on the table.
The only way to ‘save’ public schools such as these is to restrict mainstream classrooms to children who WANT to be there. The administration must ruthlessly remove every so called student who is disruptive has disciplinary issues. Give the students who are willing to learn the opportunity to do so without all the distractions and wasted time. Put the rest into alternative learning programs and put the students who commit crimes into the hands of LEO and the courts. Keep them away. IMO, if your school district doesn’t already do this, mine does and hasn’t wavered, then your district is unlikely to do so without massive change in the Board membership.
I’d go even farther. Eject the bad ones out of the school system entirely. We’ve got to stop trying to educate everyone.
The constant troublemakers can stay at home and get their GED.
More likely get a head start on their DUI and ADW.
Why bother delaying the inevitable?
Which requires a return to Christian morals, rather than the warped morals of Progressivism.
Indirectly sure; Western Cultural Values, Traditions and yes our traditional Western morality. We should use ‘Christian’ as a qualifier for what morality is. We do not and should not have a govt sponsored or govt preferred religion. That’s a dangerous path, thankfully forbidden by the Constitution. What we need to do is apply that prohibition to the ‘secular religion’ of woke/progressive preferences IMO.
I went to Middle School and High School in the 1980’s. Saw fights of course and even participated in one or two 🙂 but I do not ever remember a time where fights happened in classrooms or students were out of control and hostile to teachers. Not like the videos we all see almost everyday.
I do wonder when AGI (artificial general intelligence) finally comes on line how much it will change education. Hopefully for the better.
I quit teaching 10 years ago after a decade for the same reasons.
I went to parochial school from 1st to 4th grade. My dad was in the military, so we went overseas, and I went to two different schools as we were moved about.
What a difference! I went from a quiet, comfortable atmosphere for learning to a place where I got called “brains” as an insult, and where I learned to fight. I could see it coming a long way off, and I made up my mind not to lose. The only way for the smallest kid in school to win against a group is to cheat, so that’s what I did.
Many years later I placed my oldest son in private schools, until I moved into allegedly the best school system in Maryland. It was chaos every day. I would open the door to walk into the school, and be hit by a wall of noise.
Some form of private school is the only way to go, in this country. The public schools are noisy, chaotic, and full of teachers incapable of conveying the basics of their alleged disciplines. And those are the ones in the wealthy white suburbs.
Welcome to the party, teach!
And don’t worry — if you do get victimized by a student, we’ll make sure that both the student AND you receive equal suspensions and discipline.
Because that’s the way it’s done… right?
Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?: The Case for Helping Them Leave, Chart Their Own Paths, and Prepare for Adulthood
Author: Blake Boles
Year: 2020
The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money
Author: Bryan Caplan
Year: 2018
The Teenage Liberation Handbook (Third Edition): How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education
Author: Grace Llewelyn
Year: 2021
Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas
Author: Thomas Sowell, PhD
Year: 1992
Just have Lulu sing to them.
“A friend who taught me right from wrong
And weak from strong”
and the fact that they hardly ever face punishment
And I wonder what sorts of policies this woman endorsed that she had been taught in Education School? Were they things like “school-to-prison pipeline” and “violence is never a solution” (especially when being bullied) and “equitable discipline”? I bet they were.
The important question is whether she will ever connect the two.
This was not a problem when parents did not try to be their kids’ friends. When I was growing up, my parents never took my side or my siblings’ side, when a teacher reported misbehavior or simply being a lazy student.
Now, a parent will take her child’s side instead of siding with the teacher. This is a very serious problem.
We have also had various laws, regulations and court decisions about discipline which have narrowed it. These were big mistakes. As long as elected officials and judges don’t have to spend a day every week in classrooms with the cretins they created, we will continue to have these problems.
The country’s decline is so sad and so unnecessary.
A lot of that is because in those days, the teachers acted like they worked for the parents. Now they act like they work for the government.
If school funding was based on the numbers who legitimately graduate and not on how many seats are occupied on a given day, we’d see a big change toot suite. So funny that “The Wire” accurately covered this 20 years ago and only now are people figuring it out.
This is a parental and administrative catastrophe. A red state and a red city. Just pointing out to the haters of Americans in CA (there are a LOT of conservatives in CA) that while you can run from a blue state, you can’t hide from wickedness–it’s everywhere.