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What should teachers be allowed to do...

I'm a teacher at Southside Middle School in CA. What should teachers be allowed to do and/or not do to discipline students. Do you think teachers have enough rights to discipline or have these rights been taken away? Do student rights prevent proper discipline?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think that teachers should be able to hit kids (like spanking) I think that might just make it worse, considering then the parents could sue. But they need to be able to discipline the kids, otherwise there is no way to maintain order. From what I've heard, teachers can't really punish kids, they'll get in more trouble then the kid was in the first place, if it's considered "inappropriate punishment" they could get fired from there job or sued by the child's family. I don't think students rights should prevent teachers from APPROPRIATELY disciplining the child.

Anonymous said...

Teachers should not be allowed to physically hurt any student ever- that includes anything, among the possibilities slapping with a ruler or hitting. Teachers should be allowed to give detentions and suspensions to a certain extent- not 5 detentions for one late assignment, though. That's just not fair. In school suspension is worse than out of school suspension, and is a good discipline. Teachers have rights (as I said, to a certain extent) of disciplining students- then there's things that only a higher administrator should be able to take care of. The rights of students do not prevent proper discipline because one human should never hurt another human physically.

Anonymous said...

I think teachers should be able to scold students, of course, for inappropriate behavior. As for hitting them or whatever, I think thats totally out of the question. A parent has the right to do that to a child if they're severely misbehaving, but not a teacher, in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

I don't think teachers have enough rights, this is one of the reasons I am so indecisive about being a teacher. My aunt, a teacher, can't even give her kids a hug. I think that in terms of discipline however, they are within the boundaries they need to be. I don't think they have the same rights to discipline as a parent at all. I don't think they need anymore rights, the rights they have, at least in Alberta are pretty high. I belive in student rights, but I also belive that things like lockers searches are totally right. I'm sort of on the line about that issue, I am all for student privacy, but some things the school should be able to do. Sometimes I think that student rights are taken a little too far.

Anonymous said...

I have seen a lot of things at school and the teachers here are almost powerless to the abuse that is thrown at them day after day. If they shout at a pupil they get accused of knocking confidence. They can not even restrain a pupil who is trying to attack them for fear of getting accused of physical assault. When my Gran was at school she says if they put a toe out of line then they got "six of the best" with a ruler. I don't like the idea of a teacher whacking me with a ruler but Grandma sure knows more maths than I do. Teachers ought to be able to maintain discipline within suitable boundaries.