This article was posted in Circle of Moms
“A teacher at Manatee County School District in Bradenton, Florida has caused a controversy after posting an insulting remark about one of her 8-year-old students on Facebook. The teacher, who has not been identified, posted a status message stating: “I’m fairly convinced that one of my students may be the evolutionary link between orangutans and humans.” A number of other teachers responded to the comment before the school registrar intervened.
‘I send my child to school, trusting them to teach him, not to talk about him’ said the boy’s mom, Lisa Wade. ‘I’m disgusted with how they talked about my child. It hurts.’
While the school district has issued an apology, no disciplinary action has been planned. As a result, Wade has hired an attorney. She wants somebody to be held accountable. “
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While teaching is HARD and teachers are human and need to vent about the challenges they face, posting something about a child on Facebook is just not smart. She clearly put a lot of thought into that status update in an effort to sound witty. This teacher just made herself look like a total idiot.
But, I don’ t know if this requires a law suit. I know that in my first few years of teaching I said and did a few things I shouldn’t have (although they were mostly spontaneous and out of desperation. They were not meditative). I’m grateful that I had a supportive principal and colleagues to help me learn from my mistakes.
As a parent, I would be irate. I would want to humiliate that teacher. I’d try to get her fired. But that would be making a bold, emotional move. And isn’t that what the teacher did? This truly is a teachable moment for the children. Let’s show the teacher some compassion, since that is what she NEEDS to LEARN. And give her a strict consequence.
I hope this teacher does some soul searching and learns from this lesson.
How would you react if your child’s teacher made fun of him publicly?
Read the whole story by clicking HERE
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I shared it! And I have to comment on this topic.
I have so many mixed feelings about this topic. On the one hand, as a mom, I would be so upset if I saw a teacher target my child. Especially with the recent news stories about special needs kids being bullied, I am very, very careful to watch for signs of bullying from teachers. I don’t know that I would call this a case of bullying.
On the other hand, I’ve been in the teacher position. Its hard- and harder than most jobs out there, with not a lot of benefits to the hard work. I think that a teacher should be able to appropriately express frustration, even on facebook, without ramifications. I don’t know that this was an appropriate expression, but I definitely don’t think the teacher meant anything except to express frustration. It wasn’t smart and it wasn’t professional- but I don’t think she should be sued. Especially if she didn’t name names (did she? I can’t open the link to the full article).
Also, I really don’t think that teachers should ever be friends with current students and their parents on facebook. Unless there was a previously established relationship- and even then, thats iffy. They should also keep their profiles locked down. If I ever go back to teaching in the public school system, I will probably just simply shut down my account.
I agree that she was probably just venting. I also don’t think teachers should be “Facebook friends” with current students or parents. And if you are, for whatever reason, my goodness, don’t post things about other students!
I’m not sure if she named names, I couldn’t open the link either. I guess I should delete that part from my post! haha. But, I’m assuming it must have come up because how else would that mom know? I can’t imagine that mom assumed that comment was about her child.
I wonder what in the world I would do if I taught in the public school system again. Obviously there is a lot on the internet now about my life. It’s not that I haven’t thought about it. I just haven’t worried about it. Goodness…
—Mama,
This teacher should be suspended and made to write an apololgy letter. This IS NOT acceptable.
I work for the schools & I am VERY careful about NEVER writing about students. EVER…on my facebook page.
on another note, I AM TOTALLY excited about my (tia’s ) Kleenex holder! WOW!!!!!!
Xxx SMOOCH. i hear the weather is unbelievably hot down there.
I wish I could open the link to find out more about the details. Her behavior really does seem ridiculous. The more I think about it, the more sad it is. Perhaps this is not her calling and this situation will nudge her in the “right” direction.
I’m excited to Tia to get it too!! It will hopefully come in handy during those cold winter months.
And yes, it is HOT here. Thank goodness for air conditioning and swimming pools! Or we would be in pain!
Seriously?! This teacher is not only inconsiderate, but she is also stupid. Facebook is a SOCIAL NETWORK– it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is an inappropriate post. I am a teacher. I have no patience for teachers who think it is okay to ridicule students (especially 8-year old children). Fortunately I work in a district where I do not see a lot of that, but once in a while it happens and it always makes me feek sick.Yes, it is a tough job and we all need to vent. Since when does mean and degrading comments about children constitute venting? Yes, there have been times when I have been so frustrated I thouh I was going to lose my mind. Yes, there have been times when I have come home from school and thought, wow, I really should not have made a certain comment to a student, even if that student was being naughty. At the end of the day, though, what has helped me is the realization that all of these students are somebody’s precious children. Children who are loved by their parents as much as we love our own. One of the things I try to work on most is truly liking the kids who are the most difficult to like.
Well said! I seriously doubt this teacher has children of her own. And is probably very young and insecure. No teacher should speak poorly on a public forum!
For the record, I never spoke about students like this:) My issued were all about how I lost my temper or said something stupid. But, say something publicly about a student? That’s just wrong. As a teacher you have to EXPECT that the students are going to challenge you and that they won’t have everything figured out and you WOULD HOPE you knew more than them. So to belittle a student about their intelligence is like milk shouldn’t come from a cow (does that work here?) haha. They aren’t supposed to know that much. Especially not an 8 year old!
Omigosh I KNOW you would never speak about a child like that. It’s just so frustrating to me because teachers get such a bad rap these days as it is. This type of thing certainly doesn’t help. You’re right, she may be young and immature. She wanted to post a witty comment to make others laugh. At a certain point in one’s life I think it is understood that jokes are not funny when they are made at another person’s expense–especially a child’s.
How would I respond? Hmmm – before Jesus or after Jesus? ‘Cause that is two totally separate reactions. OR I could do what I think, then repent later. Oh my gosh that was not only unprofessional but totally shows what type teacher she is – not a good one. Vent in the darn teacher’s lounge, not on a public forum. Facebook seems to bring out the stoopid in people sometimes, like they totally forget it IS public. I believe she should be suspended, fined and the child pulled out of her classroom and put in a different one where hopefully someone with more ability can TEACH the child.
I love the “before and after” Jesus approach:) I find myself looking at things a whole new way after Jesus, too. haha. My sister suggested she take tolerance classes and have to clean gum of the underside of chairs. I think classes are an excellent idea because just sending someone away only punishes them, it doesn’t help them change. And since she is in the educational field, learning new things seems fitting.
She needs to be taught too!
I hope they put the kid in a different class. Yeah. Definitely.
Is this how i enter to win? idk?
I shared! I hope I win, I hope I win.
The article said she used the student’s initials in the post. Anyone of her colleagues must have known who she was talking about because she’s probably mentioned him several times already in the break room. It also said that her attorney (the teacher) said there was an issue of free speech and her rights to say (or post).
I posted on this topic on FB already. This is what I said.
The race issue aside, this teacher made a very stupid mistake, or several. First of all, nothing on FB is private.Anything can be accessed or seen by others if they just have a few friend connections. So the issue of Free Speech should not even be brought up as posting something on FB is like having a mini press conference. Secondly, if this teacher knew that her principal or others in her school would see the comment, she was such an idiot to post it. I don’t have students or colleagues who are my superiors on my friends list for the simple reason that I want to enjoy some freedom of privacy. Third, using a student’s initials was her attempt to hide his identity. If she is disturbed enough by this students to post on FB, she has certainly been talking about him in the staff room with her colleagues before so they new exactly who she was talking about.
She should have been told to make a public apology. A formal warning letter should have been placed in her permanent file. She should have been required to take a tolerance course regarding the issues of race, and perhaps a parenting course or two. And she should have been given some kind of duty that teachers hate like playground duty for a year or bus monitor or summer school, something of the like.
I understand the parents’ outrage, but revocation of her teaching license or dismissal from her position or suspension without pay is too much.
That’s what I’m going to do if I am ever the principal. I’ll make the teachers do the duties they dislike (like banging erasers [archaic, I know] or scraping gum off the bottom of the tables) when the show blatant insensitivity towards students, faculty or staff.
I have been teaching for 16 years. All ages of students have passed through my classroom doors. There have been a few who, no matter how hard I tried, I just didn’t like them. That’s human nature. But to publicly post something about any of them would be just unthinkable. My kids are on my FB friends list and their friends are on their lists and several of the teachers I work with are on my friends list too. Not that I would post a derogatory remark about a student, but knowing who might see my FB page keeps me from posting certain things that I wouldn’t want my colleagues or my kids friends to see.
I so wanted to post the word VAGINA when the congresswoman was banned from speaking on the house floor for using the anatomically correct word for the female sexual organ. But I knew my Pakistani friends and possibly my kids friends would see it and not understand.
Tact and discretion and common sense. Isn’t that what teachers are supposed to help their students to learn? Not just facts and figures and dates and names of important people. What ever happened to teaching kids how to be good people by setting the example of yourself?
Ok I’m coming back to this again a few days late. After reading more about it I’m adjusting my initial reaction. This teacher made a lot of really dumb moves. Totally out of line. I don’t think legal action or firing would be appropriate because of the free speech issues- and I would rather see that right protected- but a formal apology should be issued. If one of my colleagues said something like this in a face to face convo I wod probably give her a hug and say ‘sorry for the rough day.’ but identifying the student on a public forum takes it to a new level. It’s no longer venting when names are cited publicly. That’s not okay.