Posted on 10/23/2004 7:34:49 PM PDT by Husker24
MACON, Georgia - A teacher-parent brawl in front of 19 primary school pupils sent a mother to the emergency room and the teacher to jail.
Teacher Katrina Ann Rucker, 30, is charged with battery and cruelty to children for allegedly beating a parent who tried to retrieve her daughter's book bag, The Macon Telegraph newspaper reported Friday.
According to police interviews, parent Lurella Amica went to Bruce-Weir Elementary School Thursday morning to deliver a note to her 9-year-old daughter.
At the classroom door, the girl told her mother that Rucker had thrown her bag in the trash can, the report stated. Amica entered the classroom and tried to get the book bag, but Rucker grabbed for it and the two struggled, the report said.
After Amica wrestled the bag away, police say Rucker picked up a chair and hit her in the back, knocking Amica to the floor. Rucker then began punching Amica in the face and body.
During the fight, the girl was reportedly crying for her teacher to stop hitting her mother and ran up to them. Rucker then allegedly hit the child, pulled her hair and pushed her out of the way before starting to strike the mother again.
Rucker dragged Amica by the hair outside the classroom, according to the report.
"A school administrator and another teacher had to pull the teacher off the mother," Macon police spokeswoman Melanie Hofmann said.
In Rucker's account of the story, she said Amica hit her hand during the initial struggle, Hofmann said.
"The teacher said she was defending herself because she gets a shot in that hand and it hurt," Hofmann said.
Amica was in stable condition in the emergency room of The Medical Center of Central Georgia late Thursday night.
Rucker was placed on administrative leave.
Sylvia McGee, Bibb County's deputy superintendent, said school staff called the parent or guardian of each child in the class. Social workers counseled students, and only Amica's daughter left school early.
Principal Karen Konke sent letters to parents about the incident.
"Let me assure you the school is safe and that our students have been involved in appropriate instructional activities throughout the day," Konke wrote.
Cause she was a nut case?
My son had a teacher who used to tip over kids' desks if the were messy. Not clean enough? Tip 'em over again. And again.
I came home to find my little fella, who had received a medal for perfect academics the year before, fondling the medal, crying and saying he'd never be able to repeat that work.
At a parent-teacher meeting a parent said her daughter was tearing up homework over and over, saying "It's not perfect, it's not perfect." We're talking kids who must have been petrified of whatever the heck this teacher did when they delivered a less than perfect response or paper.
I went thru 12 years of Catholic school in the 50s and 60s. I know what school discipline is and I wasn't afraid to have my son experience the same. However, this lady was crazy and I learned from several other parents that their kids were all displaying signs of nervous behavior. To top it off, at this same conference, the teacher yelled at the parents!
I'm the daughter of an elementary school teacher and not once did my mother need to yell at the parents - including the ones who came to school ready to fight w/her over some imagined wrong to their precious kid.
Yeah, maybe the kid did something wrong. They do that sometimes. And maybe the teacher's a flaming nutcase.
btw - nothing personal, prairie, just me off on a rant. My little guy was the sweetest thing and this teacher made him a nervous wreck for a few months until I realized what was going on and got him out of the situation.
"For example, our third-graders have become experts on 'fisting' and condom usage," Konke added. The school is a candidate for the Education Department's "Blue Ribbon Award" a union officer proudly noted.
She probably just snapped after attempting to teach the children of uninvolved parents who let their little ankle biters run wild.
Why can't we all just get along?
Well, afirmative action proponents might like to take her side, but with only three months in she does not have the protection of the union. She will be gone overnight for this and the parent will likely settle her lawsuit for lots of bucks out of court. All teachers have at least a year probation where I taught, and I doubt Georgia would have less.
Well, certainly in this case, she appears to tilt heavily toward nut-case. I mean she beat the crap out of parent with a chair, not too much to argue in her defense there.
I was curious as to why the backpack was in the trash. The B/C sticker is one of the best possibilities suggested here. There's just a lot of factual holes in this story, as it's written. And my curious nature raises questions. :)
Prairie
Our tax dollars at work. When was the last time a government employee was on admin leave without pay? I can honestly say I've never seen it.
I'm in Macon and was surprised to see we made Drudge. I don't recall ever seeing anything like this happening before. I think that teacher should have been fired on the spot, none of this paid leave stuff. I have not heard of any reason why the teacher put the child's bag in the trash. I'm curious about that too.
Or the reporter knows why the bag was thrown in the trash and doesn't believe that the unwashed masses need to know.
What right can a teacher possibly have for not letting the parent take the bag in the first place? This is private property and not her decision to throw it away. This is the whole crux of the matter and it seems to have been left out of the report on purpose. It is the key to the whole matter. Why stop mom from taking it? Let her have the bag and no fight will occur. I would have fought for my childs bag in a heart beat.
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I know that Social Services take children away from their own parents for less than this. I think she should be prosecuted as a child beater.
so I guess that means that the Phil Hendry Show is "art imitating nature."
bttt
There are good and bad teachers of every race, of course. My son's 4th grade teacher was black and god was she a slacker. I had taken him out of his original class because his teacher ( white ) was a real cold b***h. So essentially, 4th grade was a wash. However, his 3rd grade teacher was black and she was his favorite of all 6 years. She was young, enthusiastic and loving. The kids really responded to her. To this day we always take her a Christmas present and bring her flowers on Valentines Day.
Now these two - and we're talking about Macon, Ga here - the mother was probably black too. I'll bet that that was one fierce fight. That teacher should have her teaching license revoked and Ms. Amica should sue the school board. She was her child's advocate and did the right thing. God knows what those poor kids would have gone thru this year with that evil woman as their teacher. Thank goodness she's gone.
Teachers seize student property often.
I would like to know why she thought she had the "right" to toss out a child's book bag. Someone needs to teach these communistic teachers a lesson. My guess is it will have to be Lizzie the Lezzie in Leesonville Prison.
It's damage control. He doesn't want his school investigated. Gee, I wonder why...
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