In my state leaving them alone would be grounds for dismissal.

In fact a room of students can not be left in charge of a para
or assistant either, there has to be a licensed instructor in
the room.

Are you a licensed instructor or a para/assistant?

Have you talked to your principal about this?

If s/he is not on your side you're screwed.

If s/he is explain that there's literally thousands of
dollars worth of equipment undergoing thousands of dollars in
vandalism that hour- what is district or school board
policy on dealing with vandals?

In my school the privilege of using the computer would be
taken away progressively as consequence for damage. First off
get a paper and pencil and the student does some work "by
hand" for the first offense. Second offense conference with
Principal and parent about destruction of school property,
perhaps compensation for the damage (monetary or community
service) and a week loss of privileges (that means NO
COMPUTERS in the library or classroom either). And a
warning that the third offense means No Computers for the
rest of the year.

Destruction of other students work should be similarly
(harshly) dealt with. If one student tore up an others Math
or English paper what would happen to them?

If the principal doesn't support you in any of the above,
again you're screwed.

Good Luck,

N.

On 10/24/09, overwhelmed wrote:
> I am new to teaching computers. I have a class of 24 8th
> graders. 1 of them is a special ed kid who really could
> use an aide but doesn't have one. The computers frequently
> freeze, in spite of my many work orders.
>
> I'm having a really tough time. The kids have gone into
> other kids' files on the shared drive and deleted their
> work, pried the keys off the keyboards and put them on
> upside down, taken the tracking balls out of the mice...
>
> And I can't watch every kid every minute. It's tough to
> accuse someone if you don't see them doing it. I"m not in
> that room all the time.
>
> What can I do?

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