5th Graders Accused Of Plot To Kill Teacher

[Are_grits_groceries]

HAMPTON, VIRGINIA — Four 5th graders face felony charges for trying to do what most youngsters only joke about: kill their teacher.

The teacher was not hurt, but police said that may have been only because another pupil overheard the group and turned them in. When they were questioned, one of them was found to be carrying a vial of potentially deadly homemade poison, police said. It was to have been placed in the teacher's food, police said.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-08-25/news/9708250232_1_aberdeen-elementary-pupils-charges

And that vial is why they are in serious trouble.

When I was teaching, I was asked one time what would happen if a student tried to hurt me. I gave my best evil smile and told them 3 things would happen.
1-Whatever was going on, whoever tried would only get one chance if that. After that, they were mine.
2-If something did happen, my extended family would pursue them legally and otherwise to the ends of the earth.
I believe #3 was the scariest one to them.
3-If I passed, I would haunt them for the rest of their lives. The thought of Ms.Grits lurking from beyond was enough to give them pause.
I never was attacked in any way. Go figure?

[slackmaster]

1. #3 gets your thread an automatic DU Rec

[Honeycombe8]

15. Ditto. #3 gets a kick and rec. nt

[JNelson6563]

2. One time, in detention.....

When I was in high school, if you didn't have your detentions served by the end of semester, you spent time in the auditorium, racking up absences in your classes. There was a guy in my class who's dad had died long ago and his mother had committed suicide in recent years. She was a substitute teacher so EVERYONE knew of this. Well this student who was well known to be orphaned under tragic circumstances gets called up to the podium where both asst. principals were. He'd gotten called up there about some problem. (Side note, both of these asst. principals were assholes, mean spirited, hated kids).

Anyhow they tell this poor kid he's going to have to tell his parents and schedule a meeting. All of us students heard, the place went silent. The student in question says "I don't have any parents" and we were all sick for him to even have to say that. Anyway, those two assholes turned around to confer and the kid, in front of all, drops this big ol' spit into the coffee cup on the podium. We were all in on the conspiracy as we didn't make a noise but, to look around, every student was smiling silently. We knew to do otherwise would set off a warning, possibly get him into more trouble. Plus we all thought it was fitting. I for one wished there had been two cups, one for each. Heartless bastards.

I know this is slightly off topic but felt compelled to share. I've had awesome teachers that I love to this day. Also have had really bad teachers that don't deserve to be poisoned but do deserve to be led out of school, never to return again.

Julie

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. That is horrible!

They needed a lot of help IMHO!

I tried never to discipline a kid in front of others if it could be avoided. I did my best to talk to the kid after class or at some other time. It can't always be helped. I believe tht embarrassing a kid when there is any other way is going to damage the kid and any learning process.

I HATED to be even remotely embarrassed when I was a student.

[JNelson6563]

4. Some people just shouldn't be in education.

But thank the gods for those who have a real "calling".

Julie

[lunatica]

7. That's a good story

It belongs in a movie about coming of age. In a drama, and not in some comedy where the evil teachers are ridiculously goofy.

That was a cool thing all you guys did.

[JNelson6563]

8. Amazing things happened in that auditorium during detention.

I'd never thought of it but I think you're on to something with the coming-of-age movie.

The same day the previously mentioned event happened there was yet another extraordinary event. There was a bully in the end-of-semester detention thing, made life ell for certain easy victims. This one day he decided to pick on some poor kid by nailing the back of his head with spit-balls. Next to the victim was a friend of mine, a non-stereo-typical jock. Big strong football player who stood up for the little guy (lived 3 houses down from me so was like a brother). Well after a few spit balls hit the kid next to him he turned around and told the bully to knock it off. Bully didn't stop. Another warning issued. Bully decides to push his luck and targets the jock. He did this precisely twice before shit got real for him.

The next 90 seconds seemed to play out in slow motion....

The jock by this time has had it. He hurdles a row of seats and runs up the aisle in no time, grabs the bully by the collar and pummels him. Gets in three or four really good hits before there was even time to react. It was during this part of it that time seemed to stand still. Of course reaction came swiftly after that and he was whisked away, to the cheers of some, big smile on his face. He got in plenty of trouble but that bully never bothered another single kid the rest of high school.

It almost got so that you didn't serve your detentions on time on purpose. All the most interesting stuff happened during the semi-annual "reckoning" in the auditorium. Lots of coming-of-age type moments.

Julie

[lunatica]

9. Evidently it was the karmic adjustment detention

LOL!

The movie could be called The Detention Reckoning or something similar. I'd definitely like to see it if it were to be made. We can ALL relate painfully to these High School experiences. Everyone who ever attended High School could.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

16. Bildungsroman fo sho

[radicalliberal]

21. Thank you for your neat story, Julie.

I needed to hear it.

Edit: Oops! I made a mistake. I hadn't read your first story yet. Sorry about that. I was responding to the second one you told. I think both of your stories are neat.

[geek tragedy]

5. Ugh, what do we do with little psychopaths like this?

Can't punish them like adults, but they don't have a promising future, to put it kindly.

[MichiganVote]

6. Yes but did the teacher pass her performance review? That is afterall, the only thing that matters.

[bigdarryl]

10. Not surprised that a story like this has emerged when you have people like Christy BASHING teachers

When you have the rethugs vilifying teachers on a daily basis like FAT ASS!!! Christ Christy and 101.5 radio station in NJ what the hell do you expect kids learn from adults

[dmr]

11. Just an FYI, this article is dated: August 25, 1997

A little old.

I do wonder what the outcome of this was. Those kids are adults now, in their mid-twenties. Possibly parents with kids in school.

[senseandsensibility]

19. Yes, why is it being publicized now?

Thanks for pointing that out.

[frogmarch]

12. My 4th grade teacher was a monster.

Some people should never be teachers.

My 4th grade teacher slapped kids, boxed their ears, banged their heads on their desks, pulled them up by their hair, hit them over and over with rulers, you name it – for giving wrong answers to quizzes, for being tardy, for chewing gum or whispering in class, among other things. Her classroom was one of the lunch rooms for lunchbox kids, and if the waxed paper on someone’s sandwich made a noise as a kid opened a sandwich, she was on the kid in nothing flat. One time, an eat-at-home girl came back to school after lunch and had to use the toilet. Normally, the janitor locked the doors during the noon hour, but this time he’d left a door unlocked, and the girl slipped in to go to the girls’ restroom. The monster teacher heard the big door open and scurried out of the classroom. We heard her yell, the girl scream, plead and cry, and then loud banging noises. We never saw the girl again, ever.

The monster never laid a hand on me – I think because my mom was a teacher. Mom was a good teacher, and also a nice person, who never even raised her voice to students, much less assaulted them. Mom was a nice person at home too. When I told her about what was happening in school, she reported it to the school board, but nothing ever came of it. This was the 1950s, and I don't think there were many laws protecting children from abuse.

At recess on the playground, we 4th graders used to plot to kill our monster teacher. Coming up with different ways to do it became a game to us. We never tried to implement any of the plans. (Poisoning wasn’t one of them.)

I still have nightmares about her.

[The Genealogist]

17. That seems a bit excessive even for the 1950s

My stepmother had a teacher, I can't remember what grade, 3rd maybe, that was abusive to the pupils in her class. She was older, and apparently that was the way they did things in her day. She did something to my stepmother, hit her quite hard I think. Well, my stepmother's mother went up to that school. I don't know what she did or said but apparently that teacher was relieved of duty. Nobody screwed with my step-grandmother. Nobody.

Worst I had was a 5th grade teacher whose punishment for everything was no recess for the day, and writing sentences the whole time. She also had this "Vulcan death grip" thing she did, where she would grab students' shoulders and squeeze very hard and dig in her nails. Nothing like what you described with your 4th grade teacher, but I doubt my 5th grade teacher dares do anything like that death grip these days. Incidentally, my 7th grade reading teacher was my 5th grade teacher's wife. He was the exact opposite of her; he was a really nice man, soft spoken, never raised his voice. I excelled in his class, which was no blow-off, but he was very encouraging and had a positive attitude that encouraged me to learn and do more than was necessary for the class. I struggled every day in 5th grade, though.

[frogmarch]

18. Yes, even for the 50s it was excessive.

I never understood why she wasn't fired, or why my mom didn't pursue it further when the school board didn't act on it. This teacher wasn't the only teacher who physically abused students; there were a couple of others too. One, a young male teacher, made kids caught chewing gum take off their shoes and socks and stick their gum wads onto a bulletin board. They were told to stand on their tiptoes and put the gum at a height where they could touch it with their noses. Then the teacher put thumb tacks, points up, under their bare heels. They were forced to stand with their noses on their gum until the end of class, or until they got so tired from standing on their tiptoes that their heels went down on the thumbtacks.

I salute your step-grandmother! I wish we'd had someone like her to speak for us.

Nowadays teachers aren't allowed to even touch students at some schools. This might stem from the teacher abuse that happened sometimes in the 50s.

I am glad you had a wonderful 7th grade teacher. I had some nice teachers too, who encouraged and inspired me. My mom was one of them.

Hats off to good teachers everywhere!

[The Genealogist]

20. I suppose, like everyone else, I had good and bad teachers

I also had a science teachers in 7th and 8th grade who assigned way too much busywork (copy down all the questions out of the book on your homework, or get detention; is there really a reason an 8th grader needs to know how to spell "praseodymium?" and other elements for spelling tests?). I had a 7th grade social studies teacher (world geography/history) who spent whole classes talking about how great the ante-bellum south was and the "war of northern aggression." But I had other teachers, like my 4th grade teacher, who encouraged us to read, who read to us all the time in class, who used her knowledge as a former music teacher to give us extra music classes and still managed to get us all to learn what we needed to and still have a class of adoring students. I had teachers who were teachers because the school needed a coach and they had to teach SOMETHING (and acted like it was murdering them), and other teachers who, I honestly think would give their lives for their students if it came to that.

Amazing as it may seem, I think I learned more from teachers who treated students with respect instead of like burdens. Abusive, unpleasant teachers made learning harder. Understanding teachers with positive attitudes made learning easier.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

13. Ms Grits? Are you an article of groceries?

[Are_grits_groceries]

14. of course! nt