I'll see your Catholic school teacher and raise you a public school teacher

A Paterson elementary school teacher is on administrative leave with pay after community members complained that she called her students "future criminals" in a Facebook post, according to school officials.

The president of the Paterson branch of the NAACP said he contacted district Superintendent Donnie Evans on Tuesday when a resident told him a teacher had written on Facebook, "I’m not a teacher. I’m a warden for future criminals."

"First, I thought it was a joke," said Kenneth Clayton of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Paterson branch. "I couldn’t believe any adult would act that stupid, would have a perception of our children that’s so demeaning and negative."

The teacher has a first-grade class at Public School 21. Principal Frank Puglise said she was placed on leave, but he would not provide details on the alleged incident.

She "is not working and is on administrative leave with pay and the matter is under investigation," Puglise said.

He referred all other questions to the district offices. District communications director Terry Corallo confirmed a teacher was on leave but refused further comment.

Theodore Best, the school board president, said a "significant" number of parents, having seen the posts Wednesday, arrived at the school to remove their children from the teacher’s class.

Today, parents retrieving their children at dismissal said they were dumbfounded, angered and disheartened by the alleged comments. They also labeled the alleged incident shocking and unprofessional and said the teacher is unfit to remain in the classroom.

"Our children were disturbed by those comments," said Vickie L. White-Franklin, whose 7-year-old daughter was in the class. "They will grow up thinking they’ve already been labeled as a criminal."

Parent Angela Elliott said: "It makes me sad because I put trust in these teachers. They’re a part of my kids’ future."

New Jersey Education Association spokesman Steve Baker said the teacher has been assigned an attorney through the union.

"It’s premature to speculate" what, if any, disciplinary action the district might take against her, he said.

Baker also said the NJEA has provided several voluntary workshops for teachers that included training on use of social media.

"We teach members to use common sense and to understand that these platforms and the comments that you make will be seen," he said.

Clayton, the local NAACP president, called the comments "reprehensible."

"I see what that teacher sees" in some children’s negative behavior, he said. "But I understand my role to correct that and make that different."

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/paterson_first-grade_teacher_s.html

Is the teacher wrong though? My sister had a tryout working with a KINDERGARTEN discipline problem child who up until a month ago called his teacher 'shut up you fucking bitch', 5 years old, that's not just a criminal in the making, this is the new Damien Thorn.

It's the fact that it was posted on a public place. It's one thing to say it to another teacher or in the staff room, but to post it that publicly is asking for trouble. If the students do become criminals, then the teacher is well within her rights to say she saw it coming, but until it happens, if she's posting something like that in such a public place, she's opening herself up to repercussions. The comment might be true but it was in extremely poor taste and I can see why the school took action if this teacher was posting a comment like that on such a public place. Imagine if your child was in that class and you read that comment about your child's class.

We wouldn't want to read a comment from our doctor saying that his patients were idiots who were wasting his time. Everyone who read that and new you were his patient would wonder. I think the issue wasn't what she said, but where she said it and how pulic it was. Why didn't she take out an ad in the newspaper? Why didn't she shout it from a loudspeaker?

Supernova wrote:Is the teacher wrong though? My sister had a tryout working with a KINDERGARTEN discipline problem child who up until a month ago called his teacher 'shut up you fucking bitch', 5 years old, that's not just a criminal in the making, this is the new Damien Thorn.

Honestly, a kid at five who drops the f bomb with any adult in that manner, is not necessarily a criminal in the making, but rather a kid who has a really shitty home life, quite possibly.

In regard to the OP, I think that the teacher is in the wrong because if she is that candid on a public forum like facebook, it begs the question of how open she is with her disdain in the classroom. That is what would bug me as a parent.

Yeah - ITA Red. I've heard kids say stuff like that and when you look beyond the words, you usually see what a crappy home life the kid has.A five yeard old using that kind of language scream of how dysfunctional his home life likely is and how important it is to get him help and support.

RedBedroom wrote:

Supernova wrote:Is the teacher wrong though? My sister had a tryout working with a KINDERGARTEN discipline problem child who up until a month ago called his teacher 'shut up you fucking bitch', 5 years old, that's not just a criminal in the making, this is the new Damien Thorn.

Honestly, a kid at five who drops the f bomb with any adult in that manner, is not necessarily a criminal in the making, but rather a kid who has a really shitty home life, quite possibly.

In regard to the OP, I think that the teacher is in the wrong because if she is that candid on a public forum like facebook, it begs the question of how open she is with her disdain in the classroom. That is what would bug me as a parent.

I'm on the parents side. If the students in her class were so misbehaved and unruly, then she should have taken her grievances up with the parents and administration; not go on Facebook and publicly demean the kids and mock her role in their lives. As a parent, when you leave your child in the custody of another adult, you're trusting them to not bear any bias, hostility and malice towards them, and to basically treat them the way you would. This teacher did the former. If she had that much disdain towards her students, then it undoubtedly played a part in her well she performed her job as a teacher.

No one's mentioned the 800 lb gorilla sitting in the room although you may be unaware of it (although the fact that the NAACP is commenting should have been a clue). Patterson, NJ, besides being the hometown of Lou (Abbott &) Costello, is a city with a large black population. As a matter of fact, they are the largest demographic. Statistically speaking then it is reasonable to believe that the majority of her students are black and with a name like Jennifer Schmid O'Brien, I'm guessing she ain't. But I referenced the Catholic school teacher to make another point. This teacher works in a public school and is a union member. Actually, technically the NJEA isn't a labor union in the strictest sense and is therefore legally able to pour millions of dollars into political issues for their benefit. But I digress. While both teachers were originally placed on paid leave, even if J.S.O. tells the school administrators, or anyone for that matter, to "burn and rot in hell", she has tenure. And a union appointed attorney. Getting rid of her is going to cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, not just the postage for a letter of termination.

alan smithee wrote:No one's mentioned the 800 lb gorilla sitting in the room although you may be unaware of it (although the fact that the NAACP is commenting should have been a clue). Patterson, NJ, besides being the hometown of Lou (Abbott &) Costello, is a city with a large black population. As a matter of fact, they are the largest demographic. Statistically speaking then it is reasonable to believe that the majority of her students are black and with a name like Jennifer Schmid O'Brien, I'm guessing she ain't. But I referenced the Catholic school teacher to make another point. This teacher works in a public school and is a union member. Actually, technically the NJEA isn't a labor union in the strictest sense and is therefore legally able to pour millions of dollars into political issues for their benefit. But I digress. While both teachers were originally placed on paid leave, even if J.S.O. tells the school administrators, or anyone for that matter, to "burn and rot in hell", she has tenure. And a union appointed attorney. Getting rid of her is going to cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, not just the postage for a letter of termination.

That gorilla is a fat one, and I did peep the racial undertone. I guess what stood out to me more, despite it being minor, was how these young elementary school aged kids supposedly knew what was being posted on Facebook. The teacher was very wrong to make this kind of a pronouncement…very wrong; but I am wondering if most of the parents who complained even took two seconds to ponder the behavior of their kids. What I can't stand is mothers and fathers (mothers mostly) who go to school and curse out the teacher because their child acts up in class.