Last Updated on February 6, 2022
Remember the story about the teacher who got into hot water after he shot a disruptive student in the shoulder with a Nerf dart gun?
The gist was this:  several students were talking in class.  The teacher called them down, and most quieted down.  This particular student apparently went right on talking, as if the rules didn’t apply to her and as if she owned the place.  The teacher, a science teacher who seems to have a nerdy side that would otherwise be consdered amusing enough to engage students in the classroom, picked up his Nerf gun and fired.
The foam dart hit her in the shoulder.  She backhanded the teacher.
The update is that now the teacher has resigned after being placed on leave.  The school district — for reasons that are not clear — is refusing to say whether or not the student has been disciplined.
Let’s think about that for a second, shall we?
So often, when a student is punished — or an adult, for that matter — one of the things that punishment is supposed to do is to set an example for others.
I have not seen the student handbook over at Battery Creek High School, so I’m no expert on its code of standards where student behavior is concerned, but I’m guessing that talking out of turn to the point of causing a distraction in the classroom would be frowned upon.  I’m also guessing that slapping a teacher is completely out of the question.
I do know that when I was in school, we’d have found ourselves in the principal’s office if we continued to talk after being told to stop.  And I know we’d have been expelled if we had struck a teacher.
Instantly.  No questions asked.  And this was long before that foolishness known as “zero tolerance” that equates a butter knife that accidentally lands in a child’s lunchbox with an AK-47.
Still, the punishment would have been severe, and guaranteed.  That’s why we wouldn’t have struck a teacher.
The school may have encouraged the teacher to resign, or it may have been one of those little, “Quit or we’ll fire you” propositions.  Or, the teacher may have been just angry enough about the district’s embarrassing silence over the other side of this story that he decided he was ready to wash his hands of the whole thing.
I don’t blame him.
If she was punished at all — and that could be a big if — why wouldn’t the school district make it clear that they have dealt with her for her actions?
As before, I’m not defending the teacher who fired a toy dart gun at a student.  But in the grand scheme of things, jokingly firing a toy weapon in an attention-getting manner is still different from backhanding someone.  You can’t possibly justify striking someone with the back of your hand as a “joke.”
And if a student is willing to slap an authority figure, what wouldn’t she think of doing to a fellow classmate that has no authority over her at all?
It sounds like all the makings of a Jerry Springer Show episode.
If he’s out, she should be, too.  She should have been from the day it happened.
Otherwise, it seems like the wrong lesson is being taught.
(HT: Chris, and here’s his take on the story.)
I wish you could hear, or I could accurately relate, the stories that Jamie tells me about his days at Battery Creek – and these are only the ones he tells me about – I can only imagine the ones that occur that he doesn’t divulge to me. It’s appalling. Teachers flirting with students on MySpace, giving them money to go get lunch for the teacher, the kids outright verbal arguments in the classrooms, lax enforcement of attendance rules… and the biggest thing to me – the flagrant lack of respect for authority.