Posted on 06/01/2003 5:24:54 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Teacher sues over 'kindergartner from hell' Claims disruptive boy caused 'loss of enjoyment of life'
Posted: June 1, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
A veteran teacher has filed suit against Orange County public schools over the humiliation, emotional and physical distress, and "loss of enjoyment of life" she claims she suffered because the district failed to remove a disruptive child from her class, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
Teacher Cheri Dean (Courtesy: Orlando Sentinel)
"What I want out of this is justice," the paper quotes teacher Cheri Dean as saying. "What's so amazing is that these kinds of things are going on in other schools, and teachers won't say anything because they are intimidated."
The lawsuit contains multiple pages of examples of the boy's bullying and reportedly violent behavior at Lockhart Elementary in the fall of 2001.
Dean, 51, claims she kept a log of his misbehavior after the boy was reassigned to her classroom from another teacher's class.
Among the child's offenses, the suit details how he purportedly stabbed a classmate with a fork at lunch, started another fight and then told a teacher's aide to "kiss my butt."
On another occasion, according to the Sentinel, the boy hit two students, one in the back of the head and the other in the face, swung his fists at a third student and then punched a fourth who was reading, calling him an "ugly faggot."
Other students support Dean(Courtesy: Orlando Sentinel)
Dean said she repeatedly asked her principal to remove the child from the classroom, but was rebuffed.
"She was angry because no one was helping her or helping the child, who wasn't at a place where he should have been," Don Dean, the teacher's husband told the paper.
It is unclear to what extent the parents of the child were consulted on the matter.
Ultimately, Dean was reassigned to Catalina Elementary.
According to the Sentinel, school records indicate she had become disruptive to the school. She was reprimanded for filing a false complaint against her principal just before her transfer.
The school district's attorney defended the administration's handling of the matter.
Frank Kruppenbacher told the Sentinel a committee considered Dean's complaints, the child's behavior and how it affected the rest of the class before recommending that the student remain in the classroom.
Kruppenbacher also questioned the authenticity of Dean's log about the boy's actions.
"I find it incredible that anyone would put this kind of litany of student problems in a court case," he said.
As for the boy, he has mended his ways, according to his mother, who describes him as easily bored, wound-up and has trouble sitting still.
"There's been no fighting, no kicking and no punching at the new school," she told the paper.
At the same time Dean was transferred from Lockhart Elementary, the boy was transferred to a nearby school where certain teachers are certified to deal with challenging students.
Dean didn't fare as well from her transfer. The veteran of 18 years claims the events of the fall of 2001 so traumatized her she has been on medical leave since last fall, using all the sick days she had collected through the years, reports the Sentinel.
She has formed an informal group called Teachers Against Violence in Classrooms.
Supporters describe Dean as a good teacher. The week she left Lockhart Elementary, parents held signs in front of the school protesting her departure.
LMFAO!!! Outstanding! Will keep in mind.
One thing I can't abide is somebody not keeping a tight enough leash on their spawn. I am a firm believer in "children should be seen and not heard". My brothers and I were uncommonly good kids in public because we knew Pop would go apesh!t if we embarrassed him.
That's because if we spank them in public anymore someone calls DFCS and gets them taken away for "abuse"
Truer words were never spoken. Here in Massachusetts, parents live in quaking terror of the 21st Century version of the witch-hunt spearheaded by DSS and its legion of "mandated reporters." You always have to be extremely careful whenever you speak to a teacher, nurse, day care worker, etc. lest one of these self-appointed judge/jury/executioners takes it upon herself to report something they don't like to the state.
My brush with DSS came out of a tantrum my daughter threw in the car on the way to day care one morning. When we arrived at the preschool, I mentioned it to the teacher in the hope of redirecting her inappropriate behavior, and left because the tantrum had already made me late for work. Nothing was said to me when I picked my daughter up later that day to indicate anything was wrong, nor anything the following school day. However, when we came home from the school, a notice was plastered on my door that DSS had been to our home and would be returning the following day for an inspection. The staff at the school pretended they knew nothing about the notice, so I thought perhaps a neighbor (see below) or someone else had called DSS. I was completely in the dark as to how such a thing could have happened.
As soon as I found the notice, my employers retained their attorney on my behalf, and I spent the whole night online researching what to do in such a situation. Upon the attorney's advice, I let DSS into my home and allowed them to conduct a full investigation. The DSS caseworker isn't supposed to tell you who filed the report against you, but she seemed to have an immediate sense that nothing was wrong in our home. She left her casefile upside down in front of me in such a way that I could read the teacher's name without her having to say anything. Boy, was I stunned! When all was said and done, the matter was dropped because the allegations were completely unfounded. Still, it took two weeks before they cleared me, and it was hell waiting for their decision to come.
The teacher could have taken any number of different approaches instead of immediately calling DSS on the morning of my daughter's tantrum. She could have first consulted with the director of the school about how to handle the situation, but she didn't. She could have requested a parent-teacher conference with me if she felt my parenting skills were lacking. She could have documented the episode with a memo in my daughter's file at the school. Instead she decided it was her responsibility as a "mandated reporter" to hit the panic button and permanently tarnish my reputation by involving DSS. The director of the school, oddly enough, couldn't understand why I pulled my daughter out of the place the minute I had been cleared. I had been bringing my daughter to that school five days a week for over two years, and there were just no words that I could find to describe my level of shock and anger at such a consummate betrayal of trust. Since my daughter was transferred to another preschool, there has never been one single episode where the school has been concerned over her behavior. It was just one "mandated reporter" going over the line at the expense of my reputation as a parent.
I just had to share my experience, because it's situations like this which really do thwart effective parenting and discipline. You see, I've also got another "mandated reporter" to worry about. My next door neighbor is a kindergarten teacher at the school where my daughter will be enrolled this year. She sits on her deck day and night with a beer in her hand and watches everyone's comings and goings. She's the type who calls the cops at the first sign of anything she doesn't like, so I can just imagine how quickly she'd phone DSS if she ever heard a tantrum coming from our house. I just keep the shades drawn and count the days until we move from here, but not many parents have the luxury of eluding the "mandated reporters" so easily.
OK, end of rant ... :-)
Now if you'd hauled off and smacked her a$$ in the middle of the parking lot like the good Lord intended, I can see where the school would've called somebody. I don't get it.
Is there a problem with the upgrade in the schools performance?
She'd had a few of those also. The one on tape was only 15 minutes or so. She's had some beauties that were much more...grandiose.
You cannot reason with a child throwing a tantrum. It's like reasoning with a CEO on a tirade. It's like telling a teen girl to stop crying.
But nowadays it seems that parents are more interested in understanding such behavior in their children, rather than in curtailing it.
I did this with my own two children (now ages 26 & 16) and we never had a second incident with either one. (We also homeschooled!)
When you become a father, you learn that you must command authority with love. For instance, I have spanked my son a million times but I have never laid a hand on my daughter. Yet they both respond the same.
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