Wednesday, February 04, 2009

World (Maybe Local) News Wednesday: Slapping

Now this story has a couple of interesting discussion points, but I want to focus mainly on the alleged slap.

To get a couple things out of the way, I understand that she had previous allegations brought against her of a similar event and I also understand that she was working with special needs students, so those are automatically reasons for suspicion and a possible arrest.

However, the question I want to ask has to do with the slap on the wrist. I know a ton of kids who will continue to reach for something no matter how many times you tell them not to, and will basically necessitate you grabbing their hand (not saying it needs to be done in anger or harmfully) to get them to stop. So, should a teacher be allowed to physically stop a student from doing something against the rules.

Since I don't have the full facts on this story, let's make up our own background. The students were having a pizza party and were each only allowed one piece until everyone had eaten. One student came up and was constantly grabbing for the next and not responding to statements to stop and even after being told that they would not be allowed to have another piece if they kept reaching. That is when the teacher grabbed his hand.

Now, I know that I'm probably making this out a lot lighter than it could have actually happened, so I don't think any blanket statements can be made in this matter. But can we say that a teacher might be allowed the opportunity to stop something inappropriate from happening physically? Or am I just being too naive?

1 comment:

Kassie said...

I agree with you, there just isn't enough information in the story to really make any comment. Was the slap meant to inflict pain for was she just trying to grab the arm? Although the slapping of the face she was accused of as a previous job makes me think the former...