A Kindergarten teacher in Indiana told a young 5 year old kindergartener, named Gabriel Ross, that he “tortured and tormented” her all year. Young Gabriel kept telling his mother and step-father that his teacher was mean to him. He said that other children didn’t like him because he was bad. Who told him he was bad? The parents were concerned enough that they sent him to school with a tape recorder in his pocket in April.
On a four hour tape they were able to record shockingly hurtful comments that the teacher allegedly made to Gabriel; and about Gabriel, to the other students in the classroom. She allegedly told him that he was “self-absorbed, pathetic and ignorant”. These comments were supposedly made by a teacher with 13 years of experience.
What i am wondering is; what other things had been said and done to humiliate this child during the rest of the school year; that didn’t get on tape? Most schools start in late August or early September…this tape was made in April. That is a long time to damage a young person’s self-esteem. Most educators teach because it is their passion. Those teachers teach with joy and skill…when they run into a challenging child…they try to find ways to reach that child and work with them. If they can’t…at the very least…most will at least move the child to another classroom.
If the teacher felt that this child was so out of control all year…why wasn’t she contacting the parents to get to the bottom of the issue. After this tape came to light…the teacher’s association said that the teacher lost her cool. But the things that were said and done, definately sound like someone who knew how to zero in and verbally annihilate another person’s feelings. This venom was sounding as if it had built up from more than one difficult day. Why wasn’t this teacher seeking help handling something that she felt was out of control all year long?
At one point, the teacher says that Gabriel is pathetic and that she hopes her words hurt him because he is hurting everyone around him. Then, she goes on to say to the class…what do they think…is this somone that they want to be with? Of course, the children all say…NOOOOOOO! She very effectively made this child a pariah with his own classmates. What the heck…who is the adult here?
How can you justify verbally attacking a child in your classroom? If a child is out of control…you call in the school counselor, psychologist, principal, parents and evaluate why the child is acting this way.
Then depending on the results, you either find an effective way to discipline the child with appropriate boundaries; or you do some medical, psychological or academic testing to see what the problem is. You find ways to figure it out without getting on the level that this “professional” teacher supposedly did. There are lots of really good, skilled teachers who want and need jobs. We dont have to settle for substandard teachers educating our children.
In my opinion…this was a really horrible example of how not to teach our children.
Write where you are 