Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Beyond shocking

Anonymous wrote:

"New post please 

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/10/18/Pittsburgh-Public-Schools-King-PreK-8-teacher-attacked-parents-brick-followed/stories/201710180196 "

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder what Hamlet, his flunkies, and biased cronies are drumming up to cast blame on the teacher, such as cell phones being allowed in the classrooms to prevent this from happening again. I surmise that the Restorative Circle will be in effect, but to restore?

Anonymous said...

Let's see here...
Since this happened after school, off of school property, will the board take any action at all? My guess is, probably not. The district's position will be the teacher caused this by taking the students property. It's her fault.
The union will support the board.
If the teacher presses charges, the principal will have her disciplined. It is like calling the police from inside the building. She will probably be in big trouble for giving up the name(s) of the parent(s). Some sort of confidentiality breech.
She will have to use up her sick leave rather than workman's comp. time. (Since she instigated it, or, it happened off school property)
The union will still support the board.
A real critical incident brewing here. She will be targeted the second she returns to work. If she is able.
If memory serves me correctly, a law was passed that provided for jail time for assaulting any school employee if it is related to his/her position as an employee of a school. It is not the same as a random assault.
Please don't label me a nut job or cook. I have seen it, I have lived it!
The union still won't invite me to join the pft retirees.

PPS Teacher said...

One thing you can be sure of.

We only know about this attack only because it happened off of school grounds. If it had happened in school, the principal and the school police would be tripping over each other to cover it up.

Any PPS teacher will tell you that most attacks on teachers go unreported. And these attacks happen a lot. We are told not to call 911, ever. You can get in big trouble for doing that. We are to call the school police instead. That way incident reports can be fudged, then buried. Central administration cannot bury a report made by the city police. The media will find out. That is why we are to never call the city police.

Anonymous at 9:12 is right. The end result of this attack will not be a tightening of discipline. And the union will do nothing. Instead there will be conferences and workshops. And the teacher will be blamed for somehow handling the situation incorrectly.

Anonymous said...

total agreement with 9:12 and 12:12-- please people that arent pps -spread the word-- we arent allowed to call 911
Also for students who are old enough-- you will be discouraged from taking it before a magistrate-- and in the event that it does go to court-- you will still see the student every day after that.

Anonymous said...

In the Superintendents new role, I was shocked and disappointed that he did not come out publicly before the media and address this. This assault is significant on many levels and he could have spoken to parental engagement and expectations, restorative justice, cell phone policy, security, class room disruptions, expectations of city residents, just to name a few. I am not a teacher (just a taxpayer) but the way this has been handled by Central Office is incredibly unprofessional and at the very least tone-deaf. What the heck could they be thinking. Mr. Hamet has epically failed this basic function of a CEO. Get out in front and lead. Shame on him and the board. At least Nina was on the 5pm news today. For the life of me, I can not fathom how Mr. Hamet thinks this is acceptable behavior on his part.

Anonymous said...

Hamlet failed again. What does Holley think of her main man? The district is in dire need of responsible people. They both need to go out the door.

Anonymous said...

Now what? More courageous talk and restorative practice? I am guessing of course, but bringing in the parent to talk about the violation was the alternative to a suspension, correct? i would most like to hear from the parents and experts who may not have seen a result like an assault coming from our new approach to discipline.

Anonymous said...

agree with 9:16-- any conversation is a ploy to keep kid in classroom no matter what the offense-- but I am unsure about blaming Hamlet-- has a superintendent ever commented on an assault? Long before courageous conversations, teachers were assaulted, students were assaulted, and somehow teacher was seen as ineffective. Yes a super could call out for a policy of "student suspension" etc but in the end, some teacher is going to be blamed for disturbed students and parents.

Anonymous said...

Shock and awe is untrue Nina-- We've all known great teachers who retired early due to injuries from breaking up fights, getting bitten, etc. These were good hard working people who were never the same after a critical incident and how it was handled. They were plagued by guilt and harassment from administrations. And in this case it is often worse for men-- because they are expected to physically control situations and therefore looked down on if they are injured. This is also true for male administrators. Some schools never got school police sent--" you're a big guy, you handle it" And yes, it has gotten worse with restorative justice. If you are not part of this system- imagine getting knocked to the ground by a student, and maybe the right thing was done-- a 10 day suspension- but then you hear an administrator say to a returning student-- "welcome back we missed you" and you know the offender will be back in your class.

Anonymous said...

Nina Esposito said in her disturbingly insincere, pathetic "Nina's Notes" that she called the district to make sure King is safe. Is that a jjoke? How many teachers have left that asylum and asylums like it such as the Prep, The House, Oliver, and a list of asylums that go on and on and on. No, Esposito, you don't care about anyone except your image(which is horrible by the way). No,Esposito, you called the district to tell everyone that you called, and the fact that you revealed that in your disturbing "Nina's Notes" is worse than your call to the district.

PPS Teacher said...

PFT president Nina Esposito-Visgitis reminds me of Captain Renault from that old movie Casablanca.

Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
Nina: I'm shocked, shocked to find that teachers are being assaulted!

The only difference between the two is that Captain Renault was a comical character. Nina is not comical. She is tragic, and pathetic.
And if anyone doubts that, I could relate stories of friends of mine (PPS teachers) who were assaulted on the job, then somehow blamed for it. They called the union for help. Nina's response? Sorry, nothing we can do.

Anonymous said...

Good allusion, but Claude Raines' character was being facetious; Esposito is not intelligent enough for sardonic, whimsical embellishments. She's more Luke Harold Grant than Captain Rennault.

Anonymous said...

Anyone else notice that the post gazette disabled comments for the articles pertaining to the incident on their site?

Questioner said...

It is surprising they allowed comments in the first place. It's often easy to predict, when reading an article, whether comments will be allowed or not.