Posted on 05/29/2008 6:02:52 AM PDT by yankeedame
Parents Sent 5-Year-Old to School With Tape Recorder
By JONANN BRADY
May 27, 2008
Ignorant. Pathetic. Self-absorbed.
Those are some of the harsh names an Indiana kindergarten teacher called one of her students, and the boy's parents captured it all on tape.
Five-year-old Gabriel Ross complained over the school year that his teacher, Kristen Woodward, was being mean to him, said his mother Tabitha McMahan and stepfather J.R. Edwards. Gabriel told them other kids didn't like him because he was "bad and stupid."
When he began acting out at home, they decided to take action and try to find out what was going on in the classroom. So in mid-April, McMahan and Edwards sent Gabriel to school with a tape recorder in the pocket of his cargo pants.
What they heard over four hours of tape shocked them. Woodward can be heard telling Gabriel that he had "tortured and tormented" her and other teachers all year.
"I've been more than nice to you all year long and you've been ignorant, selfish, self-absorbed, the whole thing! I'm done!" Woodward says to Gabriel on the tape.
She continues: "Something needs to be done because you are pathetic! If me saying these words to you hurt, I hope it does because you're hurting everyone else around you."
Gabriel can be heard crying on the tape.
"You think it's bad when you see it on paper, but when you are hearing the way she says it to him. I can't even talk about it," McMahan told ABC affiliate WHAS, breaking into tears.
Edwards said that the worst part of the tape was when Woodward singled Gabriel out in front of the whole class.
"So you guys think, is that somebody you want to be with?" Woodward asks the class.
In unison, the other students reply, "Noooo." "See, your friend doesn't want to be with you. I don't know what else to tell you. So you're not going to have friends because of your actions."
Teacher Suspended
After 13 years of teaching, Woodward has been suspended indefinitely, according to the Indiana State Teachers Association.
The teachers' association is defending Woodward, saying that she "lost her cool" that day and hasn't had a chance to tell her side of the story.
Carol Mooney, a spokeswoman with the Indiana State Teachers Association, told the New Albany News and Tribune newspaper that Woodward is well liked by co-workers, parents and students and that she had trouble with Gabriel all year.
"What do you say to a kid who's rolling around, punching, biting, kicking? What can a teacher do?" Mooney said to the newspaper.
Woodward did not respond to phone messages from ABC News.
The New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. issued a statement saying, "Privacy issues and policy prohibit school officials from discussing ongoing investigations of employee misconduct."
Parents Worry About Long-Term Effect
Gabriel's stepfather, J.R. Edwards, told ABCNEWS.com that all the children in the class are given weekly progress reports and have frequent meetings with the teacher. He said Gabriel's reports had both "smiley faces" for good behavior and "frown faces," which indicates the student needs help in a certain area.
Gabriel's reports said he was sometimes "disruptive" and didn't keep his hands to himself.
Two weeks into the school year, Edwards said Woodward talked about setting up a "behavioral plan" for Gabriel, but when he approached Woodward to discuss the plan, she allegedly said, "I don't have time for this."
Edwards also said that Gabriel's behavior at home didn't make them think he was acting up at school.
"He's not perfect, but he's not out of control," Edwards said.
After hearing the tape, Edwards and McMahan pulled Gabriel out of school and are trying to figure out which school to send him to next year.
They are also exploring the possibility of pursuing a civil or criminal action against Woodward and the school district.
But Edwards said they are most concerned about the psychological impact the entire situation has had on Gabriel.
"I hope this doesn't affect him long-term, in his feelings about school or teachers," Edwards said. "We're going to seek some kind of help for him."
PATHETIC???? A five yr. old boy is pathetic?
This woman is a dangerous mental case.
Do I know that rule! Not only was my dad strict, partly because he was a Marine Corp Drill Sergeant during WWII, but also my mom was a first grade teacher in the same school I went to. If I had a bad day, I had a very bad evening. I didn't get spanked very often, but Dad could get in my face and make me wish I was being spanked.
“They could not just “drop” the kid out of class or “transfer” him to a “special ed” class for many legal reasons. What they had to do was literally document every instance of this kid’s bad behavior on paper in a “log” with times and dates and the description of the incident. It took half the school year and many pages of “documentation” to eventually present to the principal and school bureaucracy to get this kid removed from the class, and of course the parent (single guy) had a fit”
Yup, it’s really quite ridiculous. My wife has to be a teacher, cop, lawyer and private investigator.
Somehow we need to completely overhaul our education system.
“She lost her cool no doubt and teaching is a low-paying, stressful job.”
2 mins is losing her cool. 4 hours is abuse.
The cow should be shot.
>>Contact the parents? <<
And when the parents do nothing?
I was a playground aid (volunteer) for my daughter’s kindergarten class. I got blindside kicked by a kid. Left a huge bruise on my shin.
The parent had been contacted. She did nothing. The dumpling pushed a kid off the top of a slide and cut another’s web between the index finger and thumb with safety scissors. The parent did squat and the school was afraid of a law suit.
I pulled my daughter out.
“PATHETIC???? A five yr. old boy is pathetic?
This woman is a dangerous mental case.”
All along or driven to it because the school and parents wouldn’t back her up on this kid’s misbehavior?
I’m not excusing her actions, she clearly shouldn’t have reacted that way, but I’d be interested to know what precipitated it. From the article it appears this kid’s been a problem all year.
Girls can play quietly for a good length of time, but boys (little bundles of testosterone) need to work off their energy by running, jumping, climbing, etc. We like to get the boys all pooped out at the park, then they're content to decompress and chill out.
I dunno, as a teacher, I have a harder time with the hand on hip, eye rolling little girl than I do with a rough and tumble little boy. :)
Behavior like this happens more often when you force boys into teaching systems that favor learning styles of girls.
None of which excuses a teacher doing this. She’s a teacher and an adult.
As I said early on. Public schools are broken. Eliminating the teachers union would be a good first step. Eliminating the bureaucracy would be a good second step.
And BTW, I have to add that the teacher was a gem. A true miracle worker, with five troubled children in a class of 20. She did her best, which was amazing.
I still love her to pieces and wish her the best.
The parents said the boy complained about the teacher hassling him. that is why they put the recorder in his pocket. I think they did the right thing. Obviously it wasn’t the 1st time she did it.
I wish I had done this when my daughter was being abused in her classroom. I’d been warned that the teacher was “mean” beforehand and chose to ignore the warnings. My daughter said that the teacher punished kids by throwing them into the coat closet and in two instances had shaken her when she was late turning in assignments (3rd grade). My daughter was very quiet and well behaved but sometimes lost in thought and slow to respond. I finally took her out and homeschooled her that year. Later, the teacher was reassigned to a non-classroom role. The tape recorder thing would have made it a lot easier and I would have removed my daughter sooner.
And so the answer is to verbally abuse the child for hours on end? Perhaps she should be fired so she can find a field more suitable for her mentality, like septic tank cleaning.
Ooooo, me too!
I can't stand belligerent kids.
“Great moments in public education”
Yeah, for sure. Having raised three daughters; during their school years it never ceased to amaze me what they would come home and say of their teachers said or did.
“The parents said the boy complained about the teacher hassling him. that is why they put the recorder in his pocket. I think they did the right thing. Obviously it wasn’t the 1st time she did it.”
According to the reports his parents had been getting, his misbehaving wasn’t the first time either.
Not saying she wasn’t a problem teacher, but this kid was no angel.
What kind of comment is this? If a kid is giving a teacher trouble, the teacher should alert the family and certainly involve her principal and get the special ed ball rolling. If the teacher cna't handle it, she shsould say so. What we have here is a kid saing there's a pattern of abuse, and then he takes a tape recorded to class and we're supposed to think the teacher was having a bad day and it's just a coincidence hse had it on the day the kid had the tape recorder?
In general, unless I misunderstand you, you are blaming the victim here. That's reprehensible.
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