*Sigh*

In a world fraught with blame-placing and law suits, it is only logical that each person in the country will be affected by at least one in his/her lifetime.  The law suit that has been filed against my school district and some of my colleagues hit the media yesterday, so everyone's a-twitter about it.  This is all about some alleged lewd behavior on the part of a number of sixth grade boys that occurred last school year, and now the parents of the girls who "suffered" have filed suit, claiming that "we" failed to protect their daughters.  The suit alleges that the behavior took place all year long, and no one did anything about it.  I won't comment on my take on the whole thing.  Suffice it to say that this is all about money.  Plain and simple.

I am not one of the teachers charged.  I did take a moment of class today to mention to my classes that they may be teased and taunted by people on the outside about where they go to school because the suit doesn't make us look very good.  I advised them just to smile and walk away from any situation like that.  I should take my own advice!  But the truth is that it does hurt.  American public education has been under attack for the last 10-15 years, and stuff like this--along with the unprofessional sexual behavior of a few high-profile bad apple teachers who make the headlines because of their positions in the public trust--just makes it worse.  Every time we take a "hit," I cringe.  Some of it is probably deserved.  There was a wrestling coach in Avon a few years back that bit the head off a bird (or something) to inspire his team to be tough.  And another coach who left her team in the charge of chaperones at a restaurant after a game, so she could have a beer in the next room.  And, of course, there are the usual number of teachers who get into inappropriate relationships with students.  What are they thinking??  Every time something like that happens, I shake it off as simple stupidity.  This time is different.  This time, it could have been me. 

How many times in my 37-year teaching career have I been put in the position of having to be judge, jury, or simply referee?  In any classroom dynamic, there is an element of primitive rivalry, and if the teacher doesn't directly witness a situation, it's one student's word against the other.  And teachers aren't dealing with two students at a time.  Many of these "events" occur under the radar when there is a whole class to deal with instead of just one hot spot of discord.  I could write a book about things that have occurred, from a youngster who told me that he didn't know he couldn't spit out the window, to another who loudly proclaimed that I didn't have the right to assign a detention to his classmate for passing gas (loudly and deliberately) in the middle of class.  In the end, I have to pass instant judgment on a situation, sometimes without knowing all of the details.  I call them as I see them, and (as my father used to say) "You don't argue with the ref!"  In all these years, I have had two parents who have come in to challenge my judgment.  Both situations ended amicably, thank God. 

Still, the commodity I work with is CHILDREN, and emotions run high when parents hear from their darlings about things that go on at school.  I have often told parents at the beginning of the year, "I will believe half of what your child tells me is going on at home, if you will believe half of what he/she says is going on at school!"  Everything about the educational environment changed after Columbine.  No longer can we ignore an angry outburst just because of the situation.  If an upset youngster proclaims, "I'd like to blow up this school," and we tell him simply to cool off without taking other action--and then he goes on a violent rampage--it's OUR corporate butt that's in the chopper.  The old saw that a kid deserved what he got at the hands of another kid because the first one was obnoxious, no longer flies.  I have taken the attitude that it isn't my job to get to the bottom of every conflict in my classroom.  I de-fuse it when it happens, then work on the details later.  I don't want a single student to be able to go home and say, "I told Ms. McNary, but she didn't do anything about it."  It doesn't matter whose ox was gored; it just matters that someone paid attention.  I have to be that someone in Room 110 of Monrovia Middle School. 

What hurts about all of this is that I chose teaching as my life's work.  I go in every day and work my posterior off to do the best job I possibly can to teach language arts to the students of my school.  I come home tired and covered with work that has to come home with me because there aren't enough hours of the day to do it all.  Every time everything I've worked for gets negative press, it is like a punch in the belly.  Time to retire?  I need to check into that!