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Six teachers at Enrico Fermi School 17 in Rochester are on leave after students discovered a series of text messages among them using vulgar slurs to describe the children and their parents and wishing one girl would "beat the (expletive) out of" another.
Another message suggested sending out an automated phone call to "90% of the kids" and their families that would say: "I'm calling to remind you that you are a (expletive) parent and your kid is a (expletive) like you. Thanks."
Quote:
Jennifer Lopez, the mother of one of the students named in the messages, said students discovered the messages May 21 when one of the teachers in question allowed them to use her phone to make a video. They saw the group text notification come up and recognized a fellow student's name in it.
This was a PRIVATE conversation, not for public viewing. I get this indicates that some of these teachers are probably not appropriate for teaching in a school that is 94% minority (54% Hispanic, 40% black) but I honestly don’t see how it can be legal to fire teachers over a private conversation where all, with perhaps the exception of the teacher who idiotically allowed students to use her phone, had an expectation of privacy. Their superintendent, of course, disagrees with me.
Quote:
Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small wrote in a message to staff. "The staff members have been put on leave and the District will use all forms of available discipline up to and including termination."
A visibly distressed Myers-Small elaborated on her remarks at a press conference Friday afternoon. For one thing, she rejected the notion that how the students accessed the phone in any way overrode the significance of the content of the messages.
This is a school that has a 97% free lunch/2% reduced lunch population, in other words only 1% of their students do not live in poverty. What is more, only 8% of the students score proficient in Math with 9% scoring proficient in Reading/Language Arts. I sure this is very difficult school to teach at regardless, and these were 8th graders which can be one of most challenging grades under the best of circumstances, so I don’t doubt they were frustrated as the kids were probably also engaging in end-of-the-year hijinks.
Reason #6754 why teachers should never, ever lend their phones to students…. and this idiot did it so they could make a ticktock video, of all things.
But, bottom line, if the teachers fight it they will get their jobs back, despite one or two who probably should look elsewhere for a job.
People fail to realize that these are not just phones anymore.
I do agree about the private conversation though.
I used to hear all that kind of talk in the teacher lounge in almost all the schools I worked in.
I took it as teachers venting about the bad kids and just letting steam off.
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Teachers should have a better filter than that. It's one thing to say, "Leslie's not here today, makes such a difference", or "my god in heaven, Daniel threw another tantrum, will this day never end?"
That still would be considered unprofessional, but understandable.
On the other hand, maybe these parents are still processing that other teacher at the school, Patrick Rousch, who made the black kids pick cotton while he called himself "massa", and put them in leg cuffs? And he's on paid administrative leave?
Well, I think that it indicates that the teachers involved are probably not suited for the teaching profession; and I honestly don't think that once the messages were released, that any parent would feel comfortable having their child's teacher think so little of the the child and their parent(s).
And, btw, I was a teaching assistant from 2000-04 in a working-class neighborhood (I would estimate about 80% white and 20% non-white), and I never heard even one vulgar word about ANY student or parent -- although I remember that there was kindergartner (white, btw) who I think all the teachers agreed was a "handful". (Yes, even at five or six years old, he had quite a "rep", and his teacher would regularly send him to the special ed teachers' classroom for a time-out. The kids were all mainstreamed, but they would be sent to the classroom where two special ed teachers and I worked for one-on-one teaching.)
But I think that perhaps some teachers today need to learn some "discretion" and respect, and not just the kids -- and this is not a "slam" on most teachers. I think most teachers deserve a LOT of respect and earn every cent of their salaries.
Teachers should have a better filter than that. It's one thing to say, "Leslie's not here today, makes such a difference", or "my god in heaven, Daniel threw another tantrum, will this day never end?"
That still would be considered unprofessional, but understandable.
On the other hand, maybe these parents are still processing that other teacher at the school, Patrick Rousch, who made the black kids pick cotton while he called himself "massa", and put them in leg cuffs? And he's on paid administrative leave?
What's going on in that school?
It was a PRIVATE conversation on PRIVATE devices between people who apparently had no issue with what was being said quietly among themselves. This was not meant for anyone but the six of them to see and they all had an expectation of privacy. They should not need to worry about having a professional filter on in that circumstance.
The teacher didn’t just have the black kids pick cotton, they all had too. However this, as opposed to the PRIVATE text conversation, should get the teacher disciplined or fired. It was done as part of his job, directly involved students, was not an authorized lesson, and was totally inappropriate regardless of his student population. The bad thing is I guarantee you the idiot thought he was doing it to be culturally sensitive.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldhag1
It was a PRIVATE conversation on PRIVATE devices between people who apparently had no issue with what was being said quietly among themselves. This was not meant for anyone but the six of them to see and they all had an expectation of privacy. They should not need to worry about having a professional filter on in that circumstance.
The teacher didn’t just have the black kids pick cotton, they all had too. However this, as opposed to the PRIVATE text conversation, should get the teacher disciplined or fired. It was done as part of his job, directly involved students, was not an authorized lesson, and was totally inappropriate regardless of his student population. The bad thing is I guarantee you the idiot thought he was doing it to be culturally sensitive.
He let the white kids stop when they wanted to, and made fun of the black kids.
Something is wrong with the attitude in that school, and likely the leadership.
And yes, teachers should worry about having a professional filter always, in their written,
provable communications with other teachers.
Because these communications reveal what's in their hearts, which likely reveals how they are likely to treat the kids.
Apparently not since students were invited to the so-called private group. Not appropriate conduct to publish for your students.
They were not invited to it. One of the six teachers allowed kids to use her phone to record a ticktock video and a text message alert popped up while they were doing it, the kids recognized a fellow student’s name, and decided to access the texting stream. They then stopped recording their video, read through the text thread, took screen shots of the text thread, forwarded the screen shots to one student’s drop box, and then forwarded it to others.
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