A quick overview for those who don’t have time to read the whole article. A 7th grade student got suspended for 180 days because she leaned back and accidentally touched a teacher. The female student didn’t know the teacher was behind her when she leaned back and accidentally touched the female teacher’s leg.
Suspended? Really?! 180 DAYS?!?
I can understand that some schools have very strict rules about teacher/student touching but I think this may be a little extreme. Just to add to this another student was suspended for a day because he HUGGED a female friend. When I was in Grade 7 I was constantly giving my friends hugs and usually it was out of support (Being a teen is tough). Granted a few times it was cause I liked a guy and wanted to get to know him better but the only way I knew how was to THROW myself at him. No teacher ever told me that was wrong and a certainly didn’t get suspended for it.
I think my main problem with this whole situation is that students are supposed to trust their teachers. To many kids being able to hug your teacher is a way of showing trust. I sure know that there are many students in my class that some day I just want to ring their little necks, but when they are on the way out of my class I get a big hug and they tell me they had a good class. That instantly dissolves any negative feelings I have for them (in fact it makes me work harder next class). How else are these students going to tell me that they trust me?
I also understand that teachers need to protect themselves from any sort of lawsuits, etc. that can happen from ignorance. Maybe I have too much trust in the world, but I think this is a little too much…
Any other opinions out there?
contributingeducation 