How stupid can schools get?
Well, let’s see: lets mix several themes that have surfaced on Ethics Alarms lately for a potent recipe:
- Careless Social media posts
- Overly protective parents
- Misfired humor
- Kids being kids
- Brain dead school administrators
- No-tolerance mindset
Melissa Cairns, a middle school math teacher at Akron, Ohio’s Buchtel Community Learning Center, is on unpaid administrative leave and facing terminationafter she posted a photo on Facebook of some of her students with duct tape covering their mouths. “Finally found a way to get them to be quiet!!!”she wrote. Nobody disputes what happened: a student who had been given duct tape by Cairns to repair a damaged book placed a piece of tape over her own mouth as a joke. Several other students did the same, and Cairns was urged to take a photo of the silly result. Then she posted it.
Harm: none. Possible benefits: quite a few, if it helped Cairns connect with her class in a notoriously dry subject. Reaction of the school board: ridiculous.
Jason Haas, head of the Akron Board of Education, was quoted as saying, “Why was there duct tape in the classroom? How did [the students] come to have access to it?” Ah, the little known “no duct tape in class” no-tolerance rule!
And I thought kids were taught to stick together!
Another quote from Haas, however, suggests that he isn’t adhering to this line of attack. No, it’s the students’ privacy that concerns him. Someone might, well, see that they are in school. Or with a pretty teacher…or…something. There’s a law somewhere, he knows that.
If some old spoilsport wants to lecture Cairns about keeping a tighter rein on her class, fine. To fire a woman for what is at worst the offense of preserving a light-hearted classroom moment and showing it to the world, however, is almost as unfair and irresponsible as suspending a child for wielding a violently shaped pizza. Yes, I understand why there are rules against teachers posting photographs of children on social media sites. Cairns should be reprimanded for that, but a more harmless and understandable infraction of the rule would be hard to imagine.
The reasoning ability of school boards being what it is, though, I wouldn’t put any money down on Cairns’ chances. She’ll probably be fired for her affectionate gaffe, while Natalie Monroe, who told the world on her web site that she hates her students’ guts and thinks they are all irredeemable dolts, teaches on.
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Pointer: tgt (thanks!)
Sources: ABC News,Yahoo, Freerange kids
Graphic: Nordic Photos
Ethics Alarms 
There’s a strong early contender for 2013’s Curmie of the Year Award.
I’m on it, Eeyoure. Swamped at work right now, but this is on the “have to get to this” list.
I don’t get why Haas expressed surprise over there being duct tape in the classroom, considering that the Department of Homeland Security recommends that citizens keep it on hand in the event of a terrorist chemical/biological agent attack. One would think that all classrooms should have some duct tape on hand.
Perhaps the Akron BoE figures that terrorists will only attack at times when the kids aren’t in school.
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8219044
A 5th grader brought a piece of paper to class that some say looked like a gun…
I am wondering if a large number of our school administrators have damage to their frontal lobe or some learning disability that prevents them from processing abstract idea (and I am actually somewhat serious about this). When I look at the case of the paper gun, the bubble gun, and the duct tape above, I see a common thread.
The administrators and teachers are unable to distinguish between something SHAPED like a firearm from an actual firearm. They treat both as the same thing. They treat students PRETENDING to be duct taped to students who are actually bound against their will. This is a fairly basic cognitive ability which they all seem to lack. That is the only explanation for treating a child holding what is obviously a piece of pizza as if he is a dangerous threat.
These adults all need to be locked up and supervised. I don’t care about the Americans with Disabilities Act, people with this level of mental impairment cannot be in charge of children. There is no reasonable accommodation for something this severe. They are a danger to themselves and others. They could try to pack people into a Hot Wheels™ schoolbus and take them onto the interstate! OK, that is an extreme example, but these people have serious problems and should not be in any position of responsibility. I don’t think I could have trusted someone this damaged when I was flipping hamburgers at McDonald’s. I don’t think we had a job someone like this could handle without the risk of injury to themselves and others (what if they tried to eat the poster of a Big Mac?).
Since school boards in general cannot seem to reason themselves out of an open cardboard box, it is best for any teacher, such as myself, to simply not post photos of their students anywhere, for any reason. And also to think (actually think, think, think) before posting anything on the internet. I only have a facebook page, but I don’t even fill out the ‘where you work’ section. If the school boards are not going to be thoughtful, it’s up to individual teachers to be smart.
I agree, this is prudent and professional, as well as wise. Would you fire this teacher for being less so in this instance?
No, but I think those doing the hiring should hire more prudent and professional individuals.
But that would require them firing themselves! Is a puzzlement.
A conundrum, if you will.
Indeed.