Reply #90: When teachers have to be trained to deal with this level of violence [View All]

[hotforteacher]

then we have reached a new level of "tolerance" that is inexcusable--but especially in a primary environment. This is a constant conversation at my school: how to combat embedded, unchecked violence.

That being said, I don't have a problem dealing with 17-year-old Gangster Disciples at my urban high school, but this sort of problem-solving isn't something for most teachers (or most adults, for that matter). I don't get off on getting into the middle of a ring of twenty to thirty students getting primal urges to watch the mammals fight for alpha position, but sometimes it's necessary. You essentially have to have an amazing low center of gravity and be one of those "kid whisperers"--to be able to talk the most hostile child down to where they are cognitively functioning again.

This isn't something I learned from my teacher's education ten years ago; this is something I learned by growing up in a violent household. I don't know that other people, unless they have been actively trained in EBD (emotional/behavioral disorders) or de-escalation can do this, and this isn't standard fare in master's programs. Sorry. We've never been trained to be fucking bouncers.

I would not expect that someone who is a regular education classroom teacher to be able, nay, WANT to restrain or talk down someone who is literally ready to rip someone else to shreds while on the most potent adrenaline rush of their lives.

And when this becomes habitual/repetitive behavior, then the student does not have the ability to function in a regular education class and needs to be in a more secure and monitored environment until the child is able to prove self-control that will not harm other individuals in the immediate area. There are a lot of holes in the article as far as what else happened beforehand (but a lot of that data is confidential).

This is what should have happened:

*the child should have been referred to the social worker and/or psychiatrist after the first major episode,
*an OCR (Office of Civil Rights) behavior and intervention report ought to have been created,
*the teacher, principal, and parent should have met with the child post-suspension to create
*a behavior contract created with reasonable and attainable goals with the knowledge that if the child cannot cope, a special education assessment would be done to attain the best environment for said child to protect staff and students AND the child in question.
*a team of support staff should have been alerted to be the response team for this child while the interventions are being tested out for efficacy.