Were you subjected to teachers who condoned or took part in your abuse?

[Nero]

As a child, were you subjected to teachers who condoned, ignored, or actually took part in your abuse and persecution by other students?

I was.

Posted on: December 15, 2007, 08:18:15 PMWhat can we do to protect children from bigotted teachers?
Is there anything we can do?

[Sarah]

Yes.
When I went to highschool, teachers and faculty were actively focusing on kids who were "outsiders" or didn't follow the norm.
There was a lot of preasure on parents to have these kids "psychologically diagnosed" or put in therapy or on drugs.
I was actively harrassesed by some students and the teachers did very little to prevent it.

Generally speaking, they acted as if there was somthing wrong with me that needed to be fixed or was otherwise a "problem"

As far as fixing it is concerned, this is a complicated issue.
The Christian Right is actively involved in spreading FUD about such students, and preasuring schools to "do somthing" about such students.
They seem to actively wish to dismantle Critical Thinking, Science, and Diversity Studies as part of school curiculums and indeed, public school in general.

My friend Glen who is 56 thinks that this trend of distrusting youth and viewing them as "potential enemies" started in the 60's with the protests and hippies and has continued from there.

The Christian fundie leaders don't want these sort of studies supported with their congregations tax dollars.

They view it as blasphemous.

I think when the Fundie bubble bursts, things will start to calm down again.

Other than that, I know that in the science world there is a movement to return to older, more powerfull languge with regard to well established knowledge. "Law of evolution" rather than "theory of evolution".

With regard to GLBT persecution; SUE them bastards!
SUE them into the ground!
My 19-year-old friends, highschool had GLBT kids getting attacked with pipes (and sent to the hospital) beat up, gay girls assaulted by guys, lack of school support for the GLBT student club postings dispite the fact that they were a recognized official club, etc.

When faculty looks the other way with violence it's time for a Lawsuit.

that's my opinion.
-Sarah

[Dennis]

Quite the opposite. All my teachers knew I wouldn't play a female in school plays. They would write a gender-neutral part in for me (I played a lot of court jesters and suchlike). They never made me do girl things. I remember my grade four teacher had two quizzes, one for boys and one for girls. I wrote the boy one and got the highest mark. She graded it and said I won on the boys' side.

I had wonderfully supportive teachers. Students were another story.

Dennis

[Wing Walker]

As a child, were you subjected to teachers who condoned, ignored, or actually took part in your abuse and persecution by other students?

I was.

Posted on: December 15, 2007, 08:18:15 PMWhat can we do to protect children from bigotted teachers?
Is there anything we can do?

From the third to the eighth grade I had my ass busted unmercifully because I knew nothing of baseball, didn't play on the Little League, didn't care about flipping baseball cards, had no idea how football was played, didn't inflict pain on small animals, and didn't attack girls.

I was a fast learner and straight A student.  This did not do me any good as in the third grade the other boys formed a "we don't play with honor students" club.  In fourth grade I did a talk on how television works, got an A, and immediately incurred the wrath of the fools who knew more of sports than I did.

The teachers weren't actively bigoted.  It was more like benign neglect, or turning their heads to look the other way.  It was quite miserable until I left that school to go to a large high school where I blended-in and had a much better experience for a time.

The worst, biased, prejudiced, bigoted, pain-in-the-ass teacher I ever knew is my own older sister.  She made my HS days as miserable as she could because the *itc* taught where I went to HS.  She and the jackass husband of hers stopped by my parents' home every day to snitch on me and get my mother all in a tizzy over the problem de jour.  Oh, did I ever owe my sister!  She and her horse's a$$ husband made sure that I almost never had a quiet supper.  They nosed into my school life and my social life.

Karma has its way and I caught her stealing from my dad.  He has Alzheimer's.  I took her to court where justice was done, or at least started to be done.  I have my failing here because I wanted to choke her but never did.  Talk about missed opportunities...

I never thought I had so much residual bad feelings about school still residing within me.

Thanks for asking, Nero.

What can we do to protect our children from bigoted teachers?  IMHO, get involved in your child's school day and listen for signs of abuse and neglect.  When you feel something's wrong, start by talking with the teacher and if you don't get the answer you need, pursue it to the max, even to the point of involving the news media.

Lately I have seen some cases of teachers having affairs with teenage students.  This is highly improper and should be a "one strike" offense.

Thank you, All, for hearing me out.

Wing Walker

[Sarah]

What can we do to protect our children from bigoted teachers?  IMHO, get involved in your5 child's school day and listen for signs of abuse and neglect.  When you feel something's wrong, start by talking with the teacher and if you don't get the answer you need, pursue it to the max, even to the point of involving the news media.

Hear, hear.

Thank you, All, for hearing me out.

Wing Walker

No, thank YOU!
Well said.

-Sarah

[LivingInGrey]

My second grade in school I was made to sit next to the teacher the whole year, facing the students because I didn't want to socialize with the other kids. I was called upon by the other students as "the teacher's pet" and no one at my school or my parents did anything about it.

And that was just one year, I suffered through 9 years of various forms of hell known as the public school system before I finally dropped out.

[funnygrl]

Yes, Nero.

Happened to me all of 5th & 6th grades, i still remember all of their names (teachers & students) and would still like very much to hurt them all!!!

[J.T.]

There was a specific teacher who witnessed me getting bullied... and told me that i had to say something.  When i asked her why she couldn't she said it was because of liability.

This woman saw i was being tormented and did nothing.  She didn't discipline the kid at all... and expected a scared young teenager to turn in just one bully of many.  I was too scared.  She was an adult, she should have done something.

So what needs to be done?  Teachers need to stand up for their students.  Screw liability.  As for a bigoted teacher, they should be disciplined and hopefully be forced to find a different profession