Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog discussed the rash of viral videos allegedly showing teachers doing wrong, including a recent video of a male teacher in DeKalb County who did not step in when two middle school girls began brawling in a classroom. Instead, he called the office to send help. Here is what readers had to say about teachers and student fights:
Eulb: We know the girls in the video did not keep beating on each other until they died. It was stopped somehow. Someone took action that was successful. So how did this fight end? My best guess is: The male teacher used his phone to summon help. Female adults then arrived in sufficient numbers to successfully break up this fight between adolescent females. If that's really what happened, then the teacher was not ignoring the situation while the girls brawled. He was probably following the procedure required by his administrators. And it looks like it worked.
Fig: Every classroom should have a large drop net on hand for classroom brawls.
Lee: Behavior, good and bad, is a learned characteristic. Years ago, when common sense ruled our schools, students learned at an early age bad behavior had consequences. First grade, you act up in class, teacher paddled your butt. Act up again, you had to go stand in the hall, and when the principal made his rounds, if you were standing in the hall, you got your butt tore up again. The uncontrollable kids were sent to "reform school." Contrast that with today where the teachers cannot paddle, the administrators won't paddle and, if the teacher sends a kid to the office too often, the teacher gets in trouble because she cannot "control her classroom." Act up, nothing gets done, lesson learned.
Noticer: What about how administrators should respond to student fighting? It is due to this group that this type of behavior is rampant. Are their hands tied, too? Let's get to the root of that and untie them. And by the way, Positive Behavior Reinforcement does not work. Clearly, relying on parents for support is not a possibility.
Jezel: America, hello — this is what happens in schools across this country every day. Do you like what you see ? Well, this is what happens when the teacher's authority is undermined and discipline is removed from the school. Get used to it; there is more to come. You should have expected it.
Whisperer: Anyone who thinks the teacher should have gotten between the combatants has never tried to break up two middle school girls fighting. And yes, girls are worse than boys. There is a chance two boys will stop fighting because a female teacher might accidentally get hit; girls don't care. A boy-against-boy fight is usually a spur-of-the-moment, flash-bang event. A girl-against-girl fight has been building for a while.
Beach: Since "No Child Left Behind" became law, the students are now running the schools. The only way to achieve high graduation rates is to let discipline slide. If you suspend or expel, you will not meet the graduation quota and be labeled a "failing" school.
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