Re: the way kids treat each other
Posted by Lyons on 5/10/08
On 4/17/08, MathMommy wrote:
> This morning near the end of class, a freshman female
> student verbally attacked a freshman male student. She is
> one of the "cool" girls, and he is one of the "slacker"
> boys - read between the lines, potential school shooter
> type of kid. He had borrowed a pink skirt - yes, a skirt -
> from one of his female friends in the class and had
> slipped it on over his jeans. No one had undressed, shown
> any skin, etc. - it was all in good clean fun and the
> timing was not a problem for me as a teacher. The kids
> around the slacker boy were laughing about him wearing the
> skirt, and all of a sudden the cool girl verbally attacked
> him from across the room telling him how retarded (or
> stupid) he looked - he had some sort of comeback about the
> fact that no one was talking to her and no one had asked
> her opinion - she then started in about him having pimples
> all over his face - in his frustration with her and the
> situation, he used the F-word. After class was done, I
> wrote a referral to the office for both of them, and now
> it is in the principal's hands. This type of behavior is
> what makes me want to give up teaching. As a kid who was
> verbally abused by my peers during junior high, I can
> understand the pain, humiliation, and frustration that the
> slacker boy felt, but because he used profanity, I had to
> write the referral. Can someone out there help me to
> understand why students treat each other this way? I know
> it is not a reflection on me as a teacher to have this
> happen in my classroom - it happens all day, every day,
> all over our school - the kids are just plain MEAN.
> Please share any insights you may have to help me
> understand and know how to better deal with this. Listen, I have a sense of humor, but I do not think it's
appropriate for the "slacker" student to be undressing in
class, even if it was all in clean fun and not in the middle
of a lesson. It did happen in the classroom, so funny or
not, we just don't do that in class. Perhaps the referral
should have focused on that, and not the F word. Using the
F word is a common reaction, especially when a student is
being backed into a corner. Yes, it would have worked out
fine if everyone laughed and called it a day, but there's
always that possibility for things to snowball when a
student does something funny or unusual. I am guessing the
principal probably asked what started this whole thing, and
it probably came back to slacker boy putting on the pink
skirt in class. The "cool" girl was totally out of line,
and no one deserves to be verbally attacked in that manner,
so her punishment was at the very least, warranted...I do
remember these MEAN kids in school, and how damaging they
can be. At this point, I would be concerned about "slacker"
boy's emotional state outside of this situation, though,
since it sounds like he may be hurting, and in need of some
intervention.
Posts on this thread, including this one
- the way kids treat each other, 4/17/08, by MathMommy.
- Re: the way kids treat each other, 4/17/08, by Tom.
- Re: the way kids treat each other, 4/17/08, by vet teacher .
- Re: the way kids treat each other, 4/21/08, by Darren Barkett.
- Re: the way kids treat each other, 4/22/08, by MathMommy.
- Re: the way kids treat each other, 4/23/08, by Lisa P.
- Re: the way kids treat each other, 5/10/08, by Lyons.
- Re: the way kids treat each other, 5/12/08, by Jenna.
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