Idiot Alert: Chicago Public Schools

[ouwasp]

http://cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/teacher-sues-school-over-suspension-weapons-charge-showing-students-garden

So a 17-year veteran teacher is suspended for bringing "weapons" to his 2nd grade classroom. What were these dreadful items? Oh, you know, a pair of pliers, a wrench, and the gosh-awful screwdriver.

The man was teaching his students how tools work. The students never handled them. They did not have access to the tools. Yet the teacher gets suspended 4 days without pay for bringing weapons into the school!

Some administrator needs to absolutely lose their job for this idiocy.

[cleller]

Too many administrators, all trying to impress someone. What kind of bright, intelligent person would want to work for that district?

[SoonerStormchaser]

Too many administrators, all trying to impress someone. What kind of bright, intelligent person would want to work for that district?

Brack and Rahm!

[Soonerjeepman]

HOLY crap...I have a WHOLE toolbox at my school...ugh~

[KantoSooner]

As I recall, my school had teachers. all of them were pretty busy teaching, grading or coaching the less popular sports or directing plays or working with the choir. Teacher stuff.
And I know we had 2 or 3 secretaries in an office up front. I know this because they were the one's you had to check or out with when you had a doctor's appointment. And we had a nurse and a counselor. Neiither of them had admins. I think the pricipal and assistant principal shared a secretary. High School with an integrated middle school and grade school which all shared a largish chunk of land. Total of about 1,300 kids K-12.

Why the hell do we seem to need so damn many 'Administrators' today? Fire all of them except for the Principal and maybe 1-2 people to process paper. Pay the teachers a bit better and be done with it. They are unnecessary.

[rock on sooner]

http://cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/teacher-sues-school-over-suspension-weapons-charge-showing-students-garden

So a 17-year veteran teacher is suspended for bringing "weapons" to his 2nd grade classroom. What were these dreadful items? Oh, you know, a pair of pliers, a wrench, and the gosh-awful screwdriver.

The man was teaching his students how tools work. The students never handled them. They did not have access to the tools. Yet the teacher gets suspended 4 days without pay for bringing weapons into the school!

Some administrator needs to absolutely lose their job for this idiocy.

Wow, if the school has woodworking classes (used to be called
shop) then there is an entire terrorist armory already in the school!

[Soonerjeepman]

First, we have kids do "gun" stuff and we just tell them to stop...unless they threaten another student, then we send them to the principal.

Other stories...
My GF works at a pre-school in Missouri, mainly delayed kids, some autism, some physical or mental issues, nothing TOO severe.
3 stories from Monday...

#1 kid has play phone says "what's up f**ker"
#2 kid says "take your belt off to have sex" then "I'm going to have sex with my GF"
#3 kid has a hula-hoop around another student's neck, GF says, counting to 3 to take it off..he doesn't so she goes over to take it off he then comes at her with the hula-hoop growling..

these are all 4-5 yr olds.

[badger]

Erring on the side of caution with kids is nothing to be angry about. This teacher probably should have cleared everything with school admin before proceeding. Absent that, you have things that appear to be toys in front of kids and kids like to swipe and play with things that appear to be toys (I have a 13-month-old doing just that right about now).

[OU68]

Erring on the side of caution with kids is nothing to be angry about. .

I know this is based on baby Badj, but I have to take exception - this is what's wrong with our school system today, we're trying to protect the kids from everything - dammit, let them eat some dirt, get some scrapes - life can be tough.

[badger]

Eating dirt and getting some scrapes is one thing, things that can cause serious illness or injury is another.

It really sounds like this could have been avoided had he just gotten permission in advance from the district. And the suspension was a whole four days. Take the week off, apologize for not clearing it in advance and move on. Yes, you're a 17-year teaching vet, which is why you should have known better than to bring potentially dangerous things to school.

You say you put things in a toolbox out of reach? Baby baj proves to me week after week that things that I thought were out of reach really aren't.

[Soonerjeepman]

And the suspension was a whole four days. Take the week off,

being a teacher 4 days...or the week WITHOUT PAY would not be easy to overcome.

I make X amount per day, but get paid less because the spread it out over the summer...example; MAKE $200 a day but only get paid $125 because they add in the summer months. At my district if you take a day without pay they deduct the MADE amount $200 rather than the paid $125 amount...it really stings. Just sayin it isn't as casual as taken 4-5 days off that is seems.

[olevetonahill]

Holy ****ing ****. Hell Peeps I can see an outpouring of anger over If the dude brot Guns , Hand grenades and or bazookas to show the little tikes. But common every day hand tools?
Give me a ****in break.
To me thats one of the Big things wrong with Kids today, They dont have a clue how to fix anything or even what a screw driver is for.
Badg. Sounds like you are and should be trying your best to keep crap away from the baby that may harm her. But as it seems you are also finding out just how impossible that is.

You CANT protect a Kid from everything. You can try but you WONT succeed .

Please tell me HOW these common Hand tools were ever a Danger to any 2nd grader .:jaded:

[ouwasp]

This was an ignorant move on the school district's part. They are going to get a lot of bad publicity and hopefully lose this lawsuit. This could have been prevented by simply having a closed door mtg with the teacher, asking him to not do this again.

Or the school district could have been satisfied the man was offering a very practical lesson on how tools work... to probably a lot of kids from single parent homes... that don't get exposure to some of these basic elements of life.

My parents and my wife and I together have a total of 122 years in the classroom. About 40 of those years were teaching on the elementary level, another 13 as principal, the rest in middle school/high school. We are aghast at how obtuse CPS was on this matter.

[OU_Sooners75]

As I recall, my school had teachers. all of them were pretty busy teaching, grading or coaching the less popular sports or directing plays or working with the choir. Teacher stuff.
And I know we had 2 or 3 secretaries in an office up front. I know this because they were the one's you had to check or out with when you had a doctor's appointment. And we had a nurse and a counselor. Neiither of them had admins. I think the pricipal and assistant principal shared a secretary. High School with an integrated middle school and grade school which all shared a largish chunk of land. Total of about 1,300 kids K-12.

Why the hell do we seem to need so damn many 'Administrators' today? Fire all of them except for the Principal and maybe 1-2 people to process paper. Pay the teachers a bit better and be done with it. They are unnecessary.

The high school I work at has over 1600 kids in it.

There are (from the top of my head) 1 Principal and 4 vice Principals. There are 6 guidance counselors. There are 6 secretaries, There is one truant officer. One city police officer and by my estimation: 20something other office personnel.

There is an attendance office, a business office, a counselors office, registrars office, etc.

The grades range from 9th to 12th.

I attended very same school. there were only 3 grades, 10-12. 9th was at the, then two, junior highs.

We had 3 counselors, 3 vice principals, a principal, half the office personnel (including all the secretaries.

The attendance office accounted doubled as the business office. The registrars office was also the main principals office.

Total number of kids when I was there with just 3 grades, over 1600 kids.

Same number of kids, less workers, more teachers.

[OU_Sooners75]

Erring on the side of caution with kids is nothing to be angry about. This teacher probably should have cleared everything with school admin before proceeding. Absent that, you have things that appear to be toys in front of kids and kids like to swipe and play with things that appear to be toys (I have a 13-month-old doing just that right about now).

Spoken like those parents that have helped create this overreacting at public schools.

A teacher should not have to get anything cleared to teach a curriculum.

I wonder if they have a Chemistry class in Chicago Public Schools....that atmosphere can be a lot more dangerous than a damn wrench!

[cleller]

Erring on the side of caution with kids is nothing to be angry about. This teacher probably should have cleared everything with school admin before proceeding. Absent that, you have things that appear to be toys in front of kids and kids like to swipe and play with things that appear to be toys (I have a 13-month-old doing just that right about now).

Do you really want a situation where a teacher has to have advance permission to bring a pair of pliers into the school? Where does it stop? Will a teacher have to have permission to bring a pen, pencil, stapler, ruler, protractor, compass, thumbtack?

[badger]

I can tell that you all are not going to agree with me, but that's OK, because in this instance, because of my new motherly duties, I can assure you all that unless this was not specifically outlined in school policies, I am always going to err on the side of caution when it comes to child safety.

Would I have suspended the teacher? No, because I think that a veteran teacher would listen if urged to follow school policy in the future on bringing potentially dangerous items into class. Plus, the fact that nobody got hurt and nothing was handled by the kids makes it unworthy of significant punishment.

Probably the school and teacher both at this point want the issue to go away and the national media/Internet to stop talking about them... so that's what I'll do too. And I'll make sure that all garden tools are safely outta baby baj's reach whenever she's outside :)

[KantoSooner]

Ah, Cleller, you bring back good times! The chem lab was like a candy store for a budding young anarchist. So many ways to construct explosives, so little time! Gun powder became a 15 minute exercise. Napalm a bit longer. I wonder that Mrs. Kramer didn't catch on more quickly about the mess she always found on the back work bench. Perhaps there was a touch of pride in her rheumy old eyes?

[Soonerjeepman]

Holy ****ing ****. Hell Peeps I can see an outpouring of anger over If the dude brot Guns , Hand grenades and or bazookas to show the little tikes. But common every day hand tools?
Give me a ****in break.
To me thats one of the Big things wrong with Kids today, They dont have a clue how to fix anything or even what a screw driver is for.
Badg. Sounds like you are and should be trying your best to keep crap away from the baby that may harm her. But as it seems you are also finding out just how impossible that is.

You CANT protect a Kid from everything. You can try but you WONT succeed .

Please tell me HOW these common Hand tools were ever a Danger to any 2nd grader .:jaded:

yup~

[Midtowner]

When I see a story like this, I imagine there is something being left out which might make this make slightly more sense.

--kind of like how the whole McDonald's hot coffee thing was portrayed.

[C&CDean]

I can tell that you all are not going to agree with me, but that's OK, because in this instance, because of my new motherly duties, I can assure you all that unless this was not specifically outlined in school policies, I am always going to err on the side of caution when it comes to child safety.

Would I have suspended the teacher? No, because I think that a veteran teacher would listen if urged to follow school policy in the future on bringing potentially dangerous items into class. Plus, the fact that nobody got hurt and nothing was handled by the kids makes it unworthy of significant punishment.

Probably the school and teacher both at this point want the issue to go away and the national media/Internet to stop talking about them... so that's what I'll do too. And I'll make sure that all garden tools are safely outta baby baj's reach whenever she's outside :)

Just wait girl. When she's about 16 you're gonna beg her to run into the street with scissors in her mouth. You'll see.

[Soonerjeepman]

Just wait girl. When she's about 16 you're gonna beg her to run into the street with scissors in her mouth. You'll see.

lol, NO $HIT.... I do understand my 17 yr old boy is trying to spread his wings, I might just give him a kick start out of the nest~

[olevetonahill]

Just wait girl. When she's about 16 you're gonna beg her to run into the street with scissors in her mouth. You'll see.

yup, Ya got to love the idealistic Protectiveness of the "New" mommy.
While sitting back in the Realness of a grandparent whos been there done that.

[badger]

Just wait girl. When she's about 16 you're gonna beg her to run into the street with scissors in her mouth. You'll see.

Didn't you only have boys to worry about? I hear that its easier for boy parents when they're older, but harder for girl parents when they're older.

[C&CDean]

They're all hard. Boys, girls, hermaphrodytes, troglodytes, congolese, japanese, whatever.

For me, I'm pretty much happy I had all boys. A nightmare I just couldn't fathom is "daddy, I want you to meet Achmed/Tyrone/Alberto/Josh. I love him daddy and wanna have all his babies!"

[KantoSooner]

My little girll (21 now) and I got along pretty well fine. My guidance to her? "Don't bring anything home and don't get caught", served her well.
Her realtions with her mother between the ages of 15 and present, however....

[Whet]

It was a pocketknife that was the issue.

CHICAGO (CN) - A Chicago public school suspended a teacher without pay for showing his students a little pocket knife, "as part of a curriculum-mandated 'tool discussion,'" the teacher claims in court.


This is a suit for violation for Plaintiff's constitutional due process rights resultingfrom the overzealous application of political correctness. Plaintiff, a school teacher,
showed to his students a pocket knife, as part of a curriculum-mandated "tool
discussion." Other garden-variety tools Plaintiff used in the discussion were a box cutter,
various wrenches, screwdrivers, and pliers. As a result of showing a pocket knife,
Plaintiff was charged with bringing a weapon to school, and received a four-day
suspension without pay.

[badger]

It was a pocketknife that was the issue.

Ah, that makes far more sense now. Leave it to drudge and the Internet to make this a "garden tool" issue, lol.

And for the record, I know that I am being 100 percent silly in being overly worried about baby baj's and other children's safety now. I get it! I know it! I'm being a silly motherly mother now! Weird sh!t happens when you go through that whole carrying/birthing/recovering/etc process.

[ouwasp]

Well, the headline Teacher Suspended For Demonstrating Pocket Knife is only slightly less absurd than the garden tool angle...

Still think this would have been best handled in a low-key manner. Badger, you shoulda seen my Dad when my twins were born 20 yrs ago! he suddenly became the most safety conscious 62 yr old ever. My attitude toward his attitude waffled between being exasperated or humorous, knowing how hands off he'd been when I was a kid.

[cleller]

Ah, Cleller, you bring back good times! The chem lab was like a candy store for a budding young anarchist. So many ways to construct explosives, so little time! Gun powder became a 15 minute exercise. Napalm a bit longer. I wonder that Mrs. Kramer didn't catch on more quickly about the mess she always found on the back work bench. Perhaps there was a touch of pride in her rheumy old eyes?

Look man, you SWORE.

Seems like I'm remember something about an awkward girl with a piccolo....

[badger]

he suddenly became the most safety conscious 62 yr old ever

Did he also say funny things that older men typically don't say? When my mom was knitting a Christening gown for baby baj, dad apparently told her that the yarn wasn't soft enough. So, he went to the yarn shop with mom to find yarn soft enough for baby baj.

He also outta nowhere suggested that he needed to get a suit for my wedding, which was something completely unheard of for him :D

[Soonerjeepman]

My little girll (21 now) and I got along pretty well fine. My guidance to her? "Don't bring anything home and don't get caught", served her well.
Her realtions with her mother between the ages of 15 and present, however....

no $hit..my daughter and her mom...wow~ and my gf has a 15 yr old...great kid..trying to tell her mom to ease up a bit, lol.

[Soonerjeepman]

we had a kid "accidentally" bring a little pocket knife, lied about it..had it in his sock or somewhere when searched...said he left it on the bus. Then his social worker showed up, she found it in his backpack which was thoroughly searched. Principal did nothing..which honestly, I don't agree with because of the lying and hiding. He is a 1st grader. His background is not good, so having no consequences is not a good thing.

According to school rules, should have been suspended.

[CobraKai]

How many days would you get suspended for allowing a sharpened pencil in school? Think how dangerous that could be.

[olevetonahill]

How many days would you get suspended for allowing a sharpened pencil in school? Think how dangerous that could be.

Ya never had Pencil fights when ya was in skool?

[olevetonahill]

Oh and who here hasn't played Mumbletypeg?

[yermom]

nope

i had a pocket knife with me every day ever since i was around 12 though

probably not much different than the one this kid had:

http://news.yahoo.com/fifth-grader-suspended-overnight-nature-012034230.html

i'm thinking i'd be sending home the kids that didn't have knives

[olevetonahill]

nope

i had a pocket knife with me every day ever since i was around 12 though

probably not much different than the one this kid had:

http://news.yahoo.com/fifth-grader-suspended-overnight-nature-012034230.html

i'm thinking i'd be sending home the kids that didn't have knives

Agreed, Who in hell dont Have a knife on a camping trip?

[cleller]

Is it any wonder the schools are a screwed up mess? You start with half the kids being a screwed up mess from their unstable families, then add (sometimes) idiotic whacko administrators, and...no surprise.

[KABOOKIE]

When I see a story like this, I imagine there is something being left out which might make this make slightly more sense.

--kind of like how the whole McDonald's hot coffee thing was portrayed.

Yeah nobody knew coffee was hot before that!

but, but her injuries were sevre! - Emotion.