Powerful People

This is an interesting headline from two weeks ago: Twice-assaulted teacher calls it quits

BALTIMORE - A Baltimore middle school teacher who resigned two weeks ago after twice being physically assaulted by students learned Friday that the city school system is now moving to pull her state certification.

“Teaching in a city school is the job I signed up for, and it’s not my intention to skip out before the end of the year,” said Waverly Elementary/Middle School art teacher Julia Gumminger. “But I got into this to teach, not to fear for my safety.”

Gumminger said she’s been thrown against walls by eighth-grade boys four times since November and threatened with further bodily harm. She said she’s received little support from school or administration officials.

The 26-year-old earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a master’s degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She started teaching through Baltimore City’s residency program last year, and in December completed her certification coursework at Johns Hopkins. In November, she said she was thrown against a wall by a student she told to report to the principal’s office. After a two-day suspension, the student was right back in her class — a source of continual frustration for city teachers.

So, here's a teacher trying to enforce the rules, and she gets physically assaulted by one of her students.

What do you suppose the school "management" does? Essentially, nothing. The kid should have been escorted out of that school by the police, never to return; expulsion and prosecution.

At a Feb. 27 school board meeting, Baltimore Teachers Union president Marietta English testified to school commissioners that “the 8,000 teachers and paraprofessionals in the system have faced numerous assaults, only to have the student return back to class.”

Apparently, the problem is widespread in that school district.

Teachers have said principals and administrators limit the number of suspensions to prevent schools from being listed as “persistently dangerous,” but students begin to feel they can get away with anything.

What does it mean if the school gets listed as "persistently dangerous"...? Well, it means the administrators aren't doing their job, and that reflects badly on them. So, what do the administrators do? They cover up the fact that they aren't doing their job by limiting the number of suspensions.

The administrators are concerned not about the safety of the teachers and other students, but about the safety of their own careers and reputations. Of course, the kids, who are not dummies, pick up on what is going on -- they may not know the details, and they may not know why it is happening, but they know enough to exploit the situation.

In January, after sending another student to the principal’s office for cutting class, Gumminger said she was thrown against a wall three times by the boy after the principal released him from her office at dismissal. That student was suspended for 45 days, Gumminger said. After initially seeking a transfer to another school, which she was told was impossible, she decided to look for other employment.

So, this is not the first time this teacher has tried to enforce the school's rules and then be attacked by a student for doing so. Out of legitimate concern for her own safety, seeing the school administration is going to do nothing to ensure safety in the school, she resigns. The school's response? Punish the teacher!

The school told her they are asking the state Department of Education to suspend her certification because she is breaking her contract.

Doesn't the school administration have some kind of rules that apply to them, or are they above the law? Isn't there a contract that the administrators have broken? Like one that says they get paid to do a job, and they're not doing it, so they are fired? How's about revoking their license to be involved in public schools in any capacity in that state?

Gumminger will be notified of an opportunity to appeal the suspension of her certification at a school board meeting, union spokesman David Barney said.

“I lived in this neighborhood for a year before I started teaching and I wanted to be here,” Gumminger said. “... But [now] I’m too afraid. I have students wait by my car and threaten to hurt me.”

No kidding.

But, there's more....

More assaulted teachers come forward:

BALTIMORE - After Waverly Middle School art teacher Julia Gumminger, who quit Monday after twice being assaulted by students, came forward with her story in Wednesday’s Examiner, she heard from Mayor Sheila Dixon’s office, the Baltimore Teachers Union, several media outlets and one college classmate.

She is pleased that the crisis of student-on-teacher assaults in Baltimore schools is coming to light and that other teachers are speaking out, but she’s also disappointed in the focus of the attention.

“A lot of people are concentrating on that fact that the city is trying to pull my teaching certificate for breaking my contract,” Gumminger said Thursday, “but that’s not why I came forward. I thought standing up and talking about what I went through was the best thing I can to do for the kids. It’s a small percentage of students dragging schools down and the whole system is crumbling underneath the strain. Ninety-five percent of the kids are bright, creative, insightful and talented in art.”

I guarantee you these bureaucrats will try to smear this teacher in order to save their own pathetic careers. They already sacrificed her safety, as well as the safety of the other faculty and the students, with their decision to cover up the problems they have.

But, this young lady is not trying to get something out of this for herself. Just like when she was enforcing the rules, she's doing her duty now by trying to call attention to the situation.

Another teacher, a classmate of hers from the University of Maryland, had her back injured in a similar situation:

One call Gumminger didn’t expect was from Stephanie Rawlings, her classmate at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a cohort at Johns Hopkins in the Baltimore teaching residency program.

Rawlings, a Canton Middle language arts teacher, has been out of work since Jan. 28 following an assault and a later fight in her classroom in which her back was injured.

While that situation was treated a little more seriously, it still was not treated adueqately:

When the student who assaulted her came back into her classroom four times after returning from a 45-day suspension (she said she was told he would be expelled), Rawlings suffered her first “panic attack.”

And,

Melissa McCallister, a teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary/Middle, said she’s been assaulted four times since December by students. McCallister has been hit in the head with a textbook, pushed against a wall, and grabbed twice — once in what her husband described as an “inappropriate manner.”

[. . .]

Both teachers, like Gumminger, indicated they are being pushed into a corner because their transfer requests to other schools have been denied.

Their choice is either returning to an unsafe school or having the city request the state department of education pull their teaching certificate.

“I’m basically in the same situation as Julia,” Rawlings said. “I can’t return to that building — I have to quit.”

The administration should have expelled and prosecuted these students. They didn't. Instead, they tried to cover it up so as to get good reviews about their schools, thereby helping their own careers.

Now the school board needs to deal with these administrators: fire them, and prosecute them as appropriate.

If the school board refuses to deal with the situation, the voters need to deal with the school board: fire them. When is the next election there?

One indexing for this article is The Pit (see previous post by that title). The reason for that is simple. There are those who will try to get people out of The Pit. There are also those who will stand near The Pit and merely look inside it -- they themselves aren't in The Pit, what do they care, it's entertaining.

Here, we have an example of people -- these administrators -- who push people down into The Pit and then won't let them out, all to save their own sorry asses:

Powerful people prevent proper procedures; prefer pushing into pit.

Here's a newsflash for that group of administrators, and others like them:

There's a pit out there somewhere for you, too.