No More Bullies!
Teaching is hard. There are few things harder – and I can’t think of what they are.
The majority of teachers are good, decent, well-qualified people who care deeply about the students they teach. Then there are the bullies.
Today I watched a very disturbing video created by the single father of a ten year old boy named Akian. Akian has autism and struggles with a bit of anxiety related to his shared custody situation. I won’t try to tell you the story – you should watch the video and sign the petition yourself.
I am furious and sad all at the same time. How any human being could treat a ten year old like this is beyond me. Forget that Akian has autism, he is a ten year old boy – a child! Boys and girls shouldn’t accept this kind of abuse at the hand of other children. The bullies in this case were adults, and teachers, and presumably, teachers trained to work with autistic children.
But the story gets worse. Only one of the “teachers” participating in the events detailed in the video was fired for her behavior. There is no excuse for this. None.
Part of the reason this upsets me so much is that I think there is more of this in schools then we choose to admit. I have written about education before, and I’ve admitted that I can’t really even pinpoint the problem, let alone propose a solution. I do know, however, that some bad teachers exist. I know because I’ve had bad teachers, my siblings had some bad teachers, my wife had some, my kids have, and most of all because I’ve been a bad teacher myself from time to time.
I had a teacher when I was in fourth grade who belittled us, told us we were bad, told us we were the problem, etc. I’m not talking about in a tough love kind of way either – we were put down and abused. It started early in the year too. In late November she started to use our Christmas party as motivation for our behavior. Eventually, she decided to cancel our party because “we didn’t deserve it.” Then on the day when all other classes were having parties, she brought in all kinds of treats from other parties so that she could eat them in front of us.
I know some of you will not even be able to believe a story like that, but what’s worse, if you ask me, is that many of you will have no trouble believing it because you know someone who has lived through a similar situation. It’s sad to think that adults who choose education as a career, train for years to teach, turn out to behave like this.
Children should not be put through this kind of abuse. Bullying students should never be tolerated – not at all. As a matter of fact, teachers who are in the same room with bullies should be reprimanded as well. If we held each other accountable, this would not happen.
I know this is one of those stories where some teachers will speak up and say things like “we don’t know the whole story” or “you don’t know what it’s like working with autistic kids” Nonsense! We know the whole story. The story is about behavior. I don’t care how the teacher feels, I care how she acts. We all get frustrated and irritated, but most of us don’t take it out on innocent ten year old boys.