I’ve written and deleted this post several times, unsure of where to begin, but I have serious concerns about the direction of education in the United States. It’s not just about students underperforming academically or the frequent disrespect shown by students and parents toward teachers. What worries me even more is the increasing concern for the safety of teachers, aides, noon duties, and everyone who works with students and the students themselves.
I’ve worked as a teacher in two very different states, a conservative area in Texas and now in Southern California. Although the Southern California area I am in isn't extremely liberal, it’s definitely more so than West Texas. Despite the differences, the things I’ve experienced and witnessed in both places aren't all that different .
The biggest difference I noticed in Texas was how we handled dangerous situations (and I believe the response differences has less to do with area and more to do with my time in Texas was 10+years ago). I worked with students who had emotional disturbances, and they often became violent, throwing chairs, flipping desks, and grabbing anything dangerous like staplers or scissors. Their outbursts weren’t just directed at teachers or adults, it was anyone nearby. Due to their traumatic histories, once they were in that heightened state, there wasn’t much anyone could do to calm them down.
Did we have to use our Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI) techniques frequently? Unfortunately, yes. We often had to go hands-on, not just for the safety of others but also for the safety of the students in my care. They weren’t just violent toward others, they would often try to harm themselves, like attempting to break glass with their hands or banging their heads against walls and floors. Restraining them was sometimes necessary to keep them safe, even though it was the hardest part of the job and something I hated having to do.
And then I heard about an associate principal in the Corsicana Independent School District in Texas who worked with 5th and 6th graders. She was called in for behavior support after an English student injured another student. The teacher had evacuated the class, leaving the disruptive student in the classroom, where they were destroying furniture and causing chaos. The associate principal, along with at least one other person, likely more, went in to try to deescalate the situation.
They had chairs thrown at them, which fortunately didn’t cause any harm, but then the student threw a wooden hanger that struck the associate principal in the right eye, dislodging it from the socket. She was airlifted to the hospital, where doctors managed to reinsert her eye, but they’ve indicated that she is likely to be blind in that eye and might need another surgery, possibly to remove it. This incident hits close to home for me, as I’ve had some frightening experiences where I’ve been caught off guard and injured by students.
As you can see from the picture, I also had an eye injury from being caught off guard by a student I wasn’t directly working with. I was assisting another student in my classroom who was having a bit of a tough time, nothing too unusual, just upset. When another student came in fairly quietly so I assumed they were fine and just taking a break. However, they walked up right behind me and unexpectedly shoved their finger into my eye.
I won’t go into specifics about why I decided to write this post today, in case, in the incredible off chance it gets seen by someone from my workplace. However, I’ll say that we’ve had similar incidents at my school where adults have been attacked and nothing has been done, no suspensions or consequences. Kids are physically aggressive with others or simply walk out of the classroom and are rewarded for it with treats or the freedom to do as they please.
When did we stop believing in the need for consequences? At what point did we begin to disregard negative consequences for negative actions? Both teachers and students deserve to feel safe in the classroom, but right now, it seems that in too many places, they don’t.
I understand that many of these students come from challenging home environments, whether it's due to neglect, broken families, trauma, or disabilities. But that doesn’t give them the right to be mean or dangerous to others. Their rights shouldn't outweigh the rights of everyone else. Unfortunately, it seems like many places in the U.S. education system are leaning too far in that direction. If things don’t change, I might have to leave teaching for a place where I can better support kids, which is what I’m truly passionate about. Hopefully, at some point, the pendulum will swing back, and there will be more accountability for students, parents, administrators, and teachers alike.
What’s your perspective on this? Have you seen something similar, or is your area in a better situation where there’s still accountability for students' actions? Either way, I’d love to hear about it.
Jeez man, we fucked around at school but never injured the teachers. What age are they?
I used to do stupid things all the time, but I never really gave the teacher a hard time. The kid who did that to me was 12. It wouldn’t have happened if I had been paying attention. The kid in Texas who took out the teachers eye is 11.
that's horrible that you have to be on your guard all the time. I think that kids have become more prone to violence perhaps in part because of the fact that there aren't any consequences. When I was growing up and in in either 7th or 8th grade, there was a kid that was a bully to all of the teachers and disrupted every class he was in. He was soon expelled and as far as I know all the teachers and administration were in support of the teachers as were the parents. These days I think that support would immediately shift towards the students regardless of how awful they were.
I don't envy that you are in education now pal, I am really glad that I am not, no offense intended of course.
No offense taken. Honestly, I do love my job most of the time. But you're right, support often shifts straight to the students now. We've gone so far in protecting kids that we're not really protecting them anymore, just a select few, while the rest are left to deal with the consequences.
Really sorry about that dear, its outrageous why aren't the school or government do somwthing about it, like if they are student with special abilities they can group them separately, i do watch this things in movies didn't know it real, so sorry, there should be severe punishment for these act ofcourse ....look that other teacher now will have to live with an eye because of a student neglects attitude...please the authorities should do something about or you leave that job for your safety sake
I’d say most schools aren’t like that, but there are enough to make it a real issue. In my experience, I’ve never worked at a school where students faced severe punishment. It was always more about understanding their tough home life or other challenges they were dealing with. Nobody seemed to care about the other kids.
Its fine dear..pleass be careful
Man this is terrible. I wish I could argue against it, or even just feel like it isn’t true but kid now think any form of discipline is abuse, which makes parents afraid to discipline, and lack of discipline makes kids no one wants to be around and who will grow up to be humans everyone will work hard to avoid.
Some think the government has the childrens’ best interests at heart with all the anti-disciplinarian legislation, but the negative outcomes seem to easily foreseeable to be blind negligence. It feels somehow more sinister to me, but perhaps I go too far. In either case, the issues you’re talking about are palpable today, but I fear the real impact will not be see or known for another 10 years or so, when a whole generation of grossly undisciplined children have grown up to be unhinged adults. I’d say the work force will be flooded with assholes, but they’ll probably all be isolated at home, trying to make it big on YouTube while collecting unemployment…
Ok I’m definitely getting carried away now. I enjoyed your article, apologies for so many unsolicited opinions 🤣
My concern is that these unhinged adults will have their own children. Honestly, I can see this affecting many children in the future if the culture doesn’t change. There’s a quote I’ve heard: administrators are afraid of parents, parents are afraid of their kids, and the kids are afraid of nobody. Not that I want to kids to be afraid of teacher but I do feel like the quote is pretty fitting.
That quote is exactly right. As for the generation that comes from this generation??? Yeah there some Lord of the Flies potential there lol
Total insanity, the students apparently have emotional problems making them people with special difficulties, which should be treated or medicated. Total insanity
Not every student with emotional issues needs medication, but I’ve worked with many who faced emotional disturbances, and unfortunately, the parents often didn’t help or sometimes even made things worse. I had a student who had to live with her attacker because her mom refused to remove the brother from the house, and despite our efforts, we couldn't change the situation.
What I'd do:
Leave California, move to the country.
Homeschool.
I’ve seriously thought about it, but my wife’s family is just five minutes away, and mine is only an hour away. We don’t want to move our kids away from their grandparents because they’re so close. Homeschooling is an option, though. I’m credentialed in elementary education, special education K-12 and middle and high school math, so I could handle most of it myself.
That's terrible.
Is it entirely on the school, though? I am in Japan, so I can't say for sure, but my siblings in Indiana say that kids are still expelled there if they hurt another kid or act up.
Parents deserve a lot of the responsibility. Back in the day it seems like parents yelled at kids for bad behavior at school, whereas these days they curse at the school and tell their child not to worry about it because all the teachers are idiots. A lot of this teaching of no respect comes from home.
No, it’s definitely not all on the school, but I believe the school should put some of the pressure on the parents. My school doesn’t use suspensions because it might inconvenience the parents and upset them. So, no matter what the student does, they are back at school the next day. Not all schools are like this, but too many are.
You’re right that a lot of the disrespect stems from the home environment.
herein lies the problem. are you simply babysitters for them then? How about the "inconvenience" that it is placing on you and other teachers? We need to think more about that also.
The number of times I’ve heard parents basically admit they use school as a form of babysitting is pretty unbelievable.
Ooft. That's awful. In Scotland we don't really see violence against the teachers except in the very roughest of schools and even then it's rare. That eye injury for the teacher where it got dislodged, the poor person
I'm glad you don't see it much there! Honestly, you could go through many areas here in the States and not encounter it either. I’ve always worked at Title 1 schools, where most students come from low-income families, so my perspective might be a bit skewed.
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