Principal Who Expelled Student For Calling Teacher “Fine” Has Been Forced To Retire

Without exaggeration, when my son was in FIRST grade- he was held in the principals office for about an hour with 4 huge police officers huddling over him. His heinous crime? He brought a neon orange plastic squirt gun to school. He was mortified as you could imagine. 

If the kid had called her a twat, bitch, c#nt or something else along those lines – I could see it as an issue but FINE?  Really?  He overreacted in a big way and was being called on it. 

Great, my kids are currently using pickle pants as an insult.  I wonder if 4 year olds can get suspended.  I send them to preschool so I don’t have to hang out with them during the day – that would be just down right mean.  A suspension would only punish me. 

‘Cause everybody’s gotta pay when someone’s shithead little brat gets figuratively popped in the mouth. Fucking sue happy people piss me off almost as much as horny geriatrics…

True

I’m just thinking, if a 9 yo old was suspended for calling a teacher “fine” in conversation w/ a friend, I”m just damn lucky no one ever over heard the conversations me and my friends had regarding the just-out-of-college gym teacher we had sophomore year, or the uber cute geography teacher the school hired the next yr.

And, am I the only one who’s relieved that the principal is saying “I got railroaded by these politically hungry assholes” and not the standard “I regret the errors of my way blah blah blah” that most people spew when they suddenly decide to retire or step down after a bit of bad press?

Total overreaction on the part of all parties, the teacher that reported it to the principal, the principal, the mom, and the superintendent.  They should just chalk it up to a big mistake and move the fuck on. It’s not setting a good example for that school system that they quite literally shafted a well respected principal that made what (in my opinion) could be considered a minor mistake had mom not freaked the fuck out and gone to the media.  Seriously, a total lack of support of their employees (and said employees’ audacity to actually make somewhat human errors) on the part of the school system is unforgivable and will give the impression that any time an administrator has to make a difficult decision their career is on the line and they’re at the mercy of the parents’, media, etc. if they don’t make the right one.  And don’t get me wrong, I was a teacher for 8 years so I hold no special place in my heart for principals, but wrong is wrong.  Now any time a parent feels their child has gotten a raw deal all they’ll have to do is follow suit and the shit will hit the fan again.

On another note, I don’t know what the answer is with the whole “problems in the school system” issue, so I’m not judging anything specifically, but the blanket zero tolerance policy on everything is a bit ridiculous.  My son (and this was quite awhile ago when he was in kindergarten, he’s 12 now) was forced to wear his shirt inside out because it had a picture of a pirate with a parrot on his shoulder and a dagger in his mouth on the front.  The reason?  No weapons on school grounds.  What the fucking fuck?

I am shocked that the boy used the term “fine” instead of “hot”. I thought only us products of the 80′s still used the word “fine”. 

All of this is overkill, from the teacher to the parents to the principal to the school board. And we wonder why each progressive generation has such fucked up ways of thinking. Prime example right here.

“…leaving it to a goddamn chart that lists the vague offenses on one side, and the matching punishment on the other.” This sums is up.They can’t use common sense, they can’t look at “intent”. What was the intent? My son got in trouble because he brought a bullet fired from a gun during the civil war to school (it was actually a souvenir he bought after going to one of those Civil War re-enactment things). Anyway, it wasn’t even a bullet, but really just a piece of lead shaped like a bullet. I had to jump through all kinds of hoops to keep him from getting expelled because of their “zero tolerance policy for weapons”. In with policy, out with common sense.

Sounds to me like this kid was a little asshole as they had problems with him at the school before, which is probably why his punishment was overkill based on his actions on that one occasion. I’m sure this kid has done worse before, and I’m sure his mother is piece of work too, sounds like she’s just looking for a free ride. They need to be apologizing to the principal they threw out like yesterday’s trash.

I find it interesting that they claim the student had called other students names before (i.e. bullied them), but that there is no mention of any previous consequences for harassing other students. But complimenting a teacher is worthy of suspension.

Priorities, much?

AMEN.  

If there are former offenses, there should be documentation of them, but I don’t hear any mention of it. It could also just be that the kid is annoying, and neither the teacher or principal like him.

I think the parents were right to push it. This does not seem like a suspense-worthy offense, and parents should be teaching their kids both when to stand up for themselves, and that they as parents *will* stand up for their kid if they feel it’s right. They should not have let such a blatant over-reaction slide.

I’m sure the kid was being a little shit, I just don’t think the adults in the situation were right to deny him several days of education for it. Huge over-reaction. Mom going straight to the media instead of the District’s administration? Another over-reaction. Threatening to fire the principal over it? Another one.

No one’s right in this one.

I seriously doubt he is a little angel as I cannot think of a kid his age who is a little angel. I would also be willing to bet that the context he said it in WAS inappropriate. I still think all of it was overkill and any time adults start assessing a situation from an adult viewpoint with adult life experience and adult wisdom and applying it to children and their motives and thought processes is when things get fucked up real fast. That has been my experience anyway.

There are lots and lots of wonderful and behaved children. Adults forget it’s our responsibility to train these kids up in the proper way so that they know what is appropriate and what is not. The punishment assigned should be looked at as another learning experience.

I think we have the same general destination in mind but are taking different routes. I don’t believe in using the term punishment with a child unless I am referring to a crime. Consequence is a nice word and we all have consequences in our daily lives due to every choice we make: good, bad or indifferent. There are lots of children who have wonderful and well behaved moments but consistency with exhibiting these behaviors is an issue. It’s called childhood. This is why parents need to parent. Don’t get me wrong, I like kids, in fact they are my favorite people along with teenagers. It is our job to teach them through administering consequences what is appropriate and what is inapproprite. Accusing this child of sexual harrassment was way over the top. Expelling said child was way over the top. Mom going to the media was way over the top. School board firing principal was way over the top. Calling the parents and giving the kid detention should have been enough. Were we headed to the same spot, or not?

Oops! Got hung up on the word used in the title, but you are correct, he was suspended, not expelled. The article specifically states he was suspended for sexual harassment so I will go with that until it’s proven otherwise. To assume that they “called it something else” is just offering up an excuse. I know in the school district I live in sexual harassment is addressed in the student/parent handbook at every level including elementary. It was wrong of them to use that phrase in regards to this child and his behavior unless it actually met the specified requirements for sexual harassment and that really just irks the shit out of me. As for the consequnces/punishment debate, you say toe-mae-toe, I say toe-mah-toe. If it works, and it’s not illegal or immoral, then it works and I say go for it. Thanks for the stimulating conversation. 

This is bullshit!The suspension was overkill,sure,but I am guessing his mother got a bee in her bonnet and demanded the school board fire this man and they buckled so they would not appear “racist”.I hate to say it but I see this PC garbage everywhere and 2 wrongs do not make a right.

Everytime I read something like this I just think to myself Jesus if schools acted like this 5years ago when I was a Senior in HS me and my friends would be FUCKED. Girls and guys! Coz we had a hot male Spanish teacher all the girls were crazy over and a cute female English teacher all the boys wanted to bang. And lets just say we were saying more than fine about them lol. People are so fucking PC it kills me these days. I wish people would just stop and think before just acting irrationally!

What the hell is wrong with all of you.  The actions of this principal identify this CHILD as a sex offender all because he finds a FEMAYL teacher attractive?  Really?  The school acted correctly is terminating this a$$hole who reacted to a boy being a boy by suspending and labling a CHILD as a sex offender.  How can a CHILD be accused of sexually harrasing someone who has COMPLETE control over them?  Do we even know what sexual harrassment means any longer?  Apparently not.  Good riddens to the prick of a principal!  What the principal did was Political correctness gone arry not what the supper intnedend did.

wow your brite.  Sure lets punish a boy for being a boy because an ADULT female if offended by a 9 year old???? Really.  Grow up.  And lets examine this femayl teacher a bit.  How does she dress?  Has she invited this type of attention?

Ahhh, ok.. No I didn’t.  Appolgies. 
Regardless, the insane nature of this mans effort to lable a child as a sex offender because he finds a teacher attractive is absurd and a strong statement in response is called for.  The teacher needs to grow up and perhaps needs to be terminated as well.  Is there any instance where a male is not considered an evil predator and a woman a victim?  HE IS 9 YEARS old.  A female teacher in Ohio recently raped 5 little boys and was sentenced to 5 yrs less time served and is up for probation in less than 6 months!  See anything wrong here?  Seriously, she cannot handle a 9 year olds comments on her attractivness?  The only thing we have taught here is that a male can do NOTHING right and is always victiminzing a women, sorry don’t think so.

Sounds like yet another chapter for the Zero Tolerance/Zero Common Sense book. We are all to blame to a degree for allowing all these ‘zero tolerance’ policies to be knee-jerked into official policies. Sure, they sound good, as do most political-inspired sound bites. However, one scorched-earth policy does not fit all situations. My biggest beef w/these policies is that it disallows for the discretion of experienced teachers/educators/administrators. For classroom and school situations, I’m in favor of deferring to the folks w/the real experience for policy guidance: teachers and principals.

The paperwork I’m used to seeing does not differentiate the words expelled,and suspension they were one and the same.

Yeah, maybe a regional difference? We have:
OSS =out of school suspension
ISS= in school suspension
Expulsion= you can’t come back
alternative school= you can’t be around the other kids

The firing of the principal is ridiculous, as well as the lawsuit. I can’t say for sure if the reaction to the kid’s “fine” comment was overreaction or not…if it was to another kid, yeah. But have you seen the kids these days, how sexualized they are so early, and how they approach kids of the opposite sex? It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if there was a little more conversation than the word “fine”, or if the kid gave the teacher a nasty up and down look while saying it…would it really surprise anyone else? If that’s the case, suspension, or at least a serious talking to and calling of the mother was definitely in order.

I knew when I got to the part of the apology letter what was coming next…LAWSUIT!!! Goddammit I am so fucking ashamed of people in this litigious, greedy, nittygritty, fucked up society we’ve made for ourselves. I just keep waiting for someone out there to NOT try to make money from something they deserve NO MONEY FROM. Please anyone I just need one person to NOT TRY TO SUE SOMEONE FOR A BULLSHIT REASON. Then maybe I can have a miniscule amount of faith in the human race again!!!!  

OH! Give this mofo his damn job back too DAMMIT!!!!