Replies to '07/03 School Discipline: Out of Control?'

When I was in 2nd grade, I had a new teacher named Miss Seeley. I was a fairly shy and quiet little kid.  One day a girl wore a bracelet to school and it turned up missing.  Miss Seeley made us all stay after school till it was found.  This was a new experience and many were crying.  I saw the bracelet under the owner's desk in the back of the room.  Excitedly told the teacher thinking she'd be pleased, and she said: "I should have known it was you who took it".  I was devastated.  I am now 68 and was relating this story during a gathering of old classmates. Tears began pouring down one girl's face.  "I thought she hated me" she said.  This girl had gone out at lunch time and almost been hit by a car.  She came back to the room crying and scared, and Miss Seeley not only wouldn't comfort her, but wouldn't let any of the other students comfort her.  Another girl had transferred into the school from elsewhere and Miss Seeley made her sit at a desk out in the hall.  She also thought she was hated.   This info came out from just a small group of us.  We'll never know how many others thought she hated them too.  At one point after graduation, I worked in the office at the same school and was able to look at my grade school records.. All my marks were in the 90's except for that 2nd grade year when my marks were all in red and failing.  Not sure what happened to Miss Seeley, but hopefully she gave up the teaching profession before she scarred anymore little kids.