I just want to add, that kids who were in the class stated it wasn't as dramatic a scene as Vannoy depicted. The parents made one attempt, one, to call any school official. Then they opted to call the Associated Press office in Denver, Colorado. Put yourself in Mr. Kelly's place...your first discussion of an incident in your classroom involves wire services and CNN...is that right?
However, there is a point to what I'm doing. It's to impress upon them the importance of their job, and the consequences of being mentally or physically unprepared for their job.
Young people have very strong wills and very fragile spirits. It's everything I can do to break their wills without damaging their spirits, and you HAVE to break their wills to get them to function as a team. It's obvious from the story that the student was being melodramatic. However, I can think of no way that I could make one of my students lay down on the floor and have other students throw things at him that wouldn't be humiliating. The point of all this is that anyone who teaches in a classroom today has to be aware that parents may call the press if they don't like the way their child was treated. I can't stop that. What I can do is make sure that my conduct in the classroom is something I can adequately defend. I have seen instructors in both high school and college who use their authority to embarrass students. IMHO, they have no business in a classroom. I should NEVER give an order in a classroom that does not do one of three things:
1. Ensure proper order.
2. Teach a skill or knowledge objective.
3. Assist my student in achieving his or her goal of becoming a firefighter.
Some of my students root for Texas A&M. I went to Texas. We kid each other about it. I would NEVER order a student to do push ups because he wore an A&M ball cap (see my three rules of giving an order.
I did put myself in Mr. Kelly's place. I would say, "I was wrong. I want to extend an apology to the student, and promise him I will not engage in that type of conduct again. By way of apology, I will wear a Denver Broncos jersey all next week."
By the way, I HAVE been wrong in interactions with students before, and I have apologized to them in front of the class. It's embarrassing as h#ll, but it sure beats pretending you were right when you know you weren't.