Topic : 12/06 Teacher Troubles

To the teacher that did porn.... I would happily let you teach my 2 sons!!! I think if we are going to start looking at and judging what people do because it MAY influence our kids than don't you think we should dismiss all overweight teachers??? After all they are telling our kids it is ok to be unhealthy???  I know that last statement is ridiculous! So is saying that what someone did in their past, it was not illegal, neither is having a glass of wine, but do you give it to your teen?? So if you are following those rules any teacher that has smoked a cigarette, gotten drunk, or does not fit into a size 2 is not a good role model. I think this teacher shows kids even if you dive off the deep end... do not give up hope... you can come back and hold your head up high and be proud!

 

 

 

To the teacher with the myspace page........

        I thought your job was to help kids??? Is it helping them to destroy thier life before it ever starts?? You are an adult, they are kids, if the rumors fly about another student it is part of growing up but because it is you, you go make a federal case of it??? I am glad you are not at my kids school. If you had an ounce of desire to help kids like you claim you would not be destroying thier lives. Dr.Phil was right they need accountability, but not what you have in mind!

I am a single mother of a 17 yr. old high school student and I would let her teach my daughter.  I have given my child a strong foundation with high morals and ethics. She knows right from wrong. I believe people make mistakes and we should give credit to the people that choose to overcome their mistakes from their past.  She isn't a threat to students and we need good teachers. These administrators that are making or passing judgement don't have a past?  Maybe the best decision would be to find a different school district in another state.  I know their are teachers in my daughter's high school that have made poor personal choices it doesn't affect their ability to teach.  So are we going to run background checks on all the people in our schools that come in contact with our children? Is this the real world? Give her a break sounds like she was a great teacher and a very strong person to overcome her past.  Give her job back she has earned it. Tericka should be allowed to return to the classroom!!

Money is the ONLY thing that people understand.   This teacher is not after a big payoff---chances are, these parents don't have a dime anyway.    The students posting of this abhorent material was not handled within the school system---it was put out on the internet for the entire universe to view.......why should the school handle it?   Public appology means NOTHING to these kids or their parents.   If the parents or the student had any integrity they would appologize in PERSON---FACE TO FACE, not under the protection of a hastily written letter.    Court interferance is the ONLY was to handle this situation----this is beyond the schools.

 Regarding the Assistant Principal who is bringing a lawsuit against student(s) and parents who created a MySpace in the adult's name.
Dr. Phil, I understand your point of view, but I cannot agree with you that this lady should drop the suit.  She is quite right that there is none or almost no consequences that the school can impose on the students. Suspension or removal. The real point is that the students committed this crime outside of school boundaries. The Assistant Principal has had her professional competence and credentials damaged forever. What goes out on the internet creates a life of it's own.  As long as there is an internet, the lies will follow this woman's career and her personal life for as long as she lives, and beyond that. And there is nothing she or you can do to change that.  These students, by labeling on the internet as a drug using lesbian have opened up her life to entry by stalkers and any other crazy who browses My Space. No wonder she's afraid. I would be, too.
The fact that the parents punished the child at home is good. But the Assistant Principal has every right to pursue this in the criminal courts if she so chooses. The fact that the child is remorseful in nice, but it does not undo what he and his friends have done.
 Of course you are correct when you point out that the reasoning faculties in a teen's brain are not mature, indeed, are the last things to mature. That is the reason that we have rules for them to live by. And if we, as the mature adults, do not insist on the implementation of the consequences of breaking those rules,  what are we telling these 'children'?   The boy thought his action was funny; apparently he didn't think it 'unfunny' until he had the consequences pointed out to him: the lawsuit.   I'd say this lady is on the right track. Perhaps by now, the child is scared enough to tell the truth including the names of ALL the kids who were involved. That might be one positive result of this lawsuit: is he going to 'take the rap' alone, or bring all his dumb friends down with him?
Why do we so often start out by enforcing consequences on teen actions, but then back out, feeling either 'they've paid enough' or 'they're really sorry, they've learned their lesson', etc.? I guarantee you, if those students are allowed to return to that school, and, as you suggested, clean graffitti for the rest of the year, that they will be seen as heroes to most of their peer group. They will be seen by the other kids as having 'gotten away with it'. 
The school system is weighted against the adults and for the students. I worked in a residential school for the handicapped for several years. During that time, their was an 'outbreak' of sexual activity, in public, by students in the high school.  Because they were being taught a 'valueless' curriculum, i.e., teach them sex-ed, how to have sex, but don't put any values on it that could be construed as moralistic,  they were quite free to indulge their sexual urges all over campus. And did. It was disgusting and offensive.
And terribly, terrribly sad.
Think about this:  if this had occcurred in a school in 1955, what do you think would have happened to those students?
I know this Assistant Principal is swimming against the current of your opinon, at any rate, but I, for one, am standing behind her.  What she is trying to do is right, even if it seems cruel. She has the right and the responsibility to reclaim what is left of her reputation, and to create a scenario that correlates action with consequence in that school that hopefully will scare the be-jebbers out of that student body.

This teacher should not be punished for past choices.  She did something wrong years ago.  It's in the past.  She was obviously a great teacher from everything I read and isn't that what matters.  I would happily send my sons to her class.  I do not know the history of the teachers my boys have now, and as long as they are teaching my child and treating them with respect I don't care what they did in the past.  This woman made a choice to turn away from that life and go to college....to me that should be an inspiration.  I hope she can find a place to continue teaching and I wish her the best.

Calling the assistant principal a mental case?  Are YOU serious?  She was scared out of her wits that some pervert had seen her address on the good old worldwideweb and come to do whatever.  Put your address out there for a few days with some sexually provocative stuff and see how comfy you feel thinking about the possibilities.  Especially if you have children.  And then couple that with the audacity of someone else to put your info out there like that.  The level of inconsideration it takes to do that is frightening in itself. You would want to do something to make sure other such "mentally undeveloped" lovely ones will think twice before they do something like that.  And like she said, what else have they done?  How is she to know what's really behind it.  A childish little hehe prank (which it could be) or something of another level.  Yeah, their are kids out there who kill their teachers just to prove they can do it(20/20 this week), or heck shoot up the whole school. How is she to know what end of the spectrum they were on?  What end of the spectrum are those kids that they have impressed even if they aren't that way? 

The action was not committed in the school - so it should not be handled in the school.

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Schools are underfunded now - legal costs won't help - and should be paid by the boys 

I'm hugely surprised at the obvious points missed here today...

The teacher who was a porn star has clearly changed her life...she has more to offer some of these kids than some of those teachers out there who judge and shame kids for mistakes...she KNOWs and kids know that she knows how hard it is to change a bad choice...kids need someone like her.

The VP should absolutely make sure the punishment for this is visible and painful across the country....Dr Phil....will you still think this is worthy of detention and cleaning chalkboards when she's attacked, raped and maybe even killed?!?!  I've seen my space, my boys show me page after page of scary things that kids and who knows who else say they're going to do, says they've done...and we see it in the news everyday....these boys have not done something that can be erased, that stuff is out there forever now.  As a former teacher I have to say this isn't grafitti that we can sandblast away, this is on the internet forever and kids need to know they can't just do whatever they want when they're mad at someone.  The parents should be held accountable as well.....I can guarantee you that my children would never consider doing something like this...it's about teaching empathy and their brains are grown enough to know better by now.  At their age I had a job, a car, insurance payments and new right from wrong.  In early elementary school we're supposed to be teaching our kids to already understand that being a bully is unacceptable..this is the same thing.  Playing Eddie Haskel doesn't mean you get a free pass.

Well probably this all should have been considered before all the time, effort and resources were spent getting a teaching degree.  AFTER THE FACT and PROBLEM SOLVING IN THE PRESENT, probably a Good  Idea for Tericka would be TO GET A TEACHING JOB IN A LIBERAL COLLEGE like Antioch.... or similar.....

How judgemental can this school board be? So this teacher did something in her past they don't approve of and they think it is going to - what - cause her students to strive to be porn stars? Are there any teachers/board members there who are overweight? .. who smoke? ... who are rude, or gossip, or show unkindness to others? THOSE are the habits and attitudes that are likely to influence these kids in a much stronger way than this teacher who made a mistake and has been able to come through it. What an opportunity they have lost as a community to show kids that people sometimes have difficulty, sometimes do things they regret, the influence that mental illness can have - and how to make something better out of their life. What a lost opportunity to show love, forgiveness, understanding. Let her talk to the kids honestly, maybe she can be the one to give someone a tool they will need in the future that will save them from a similar experience. We have too few good teachers to throw any of them away. What a bad example this whole community has set for a these kids - much worse than Terri ever could have.