I’m going to go down a different path, here.

For so long, educators have had their hands tied in the matter of discipline. And I am not talking corporal punishment. A teacher who strongly verbally reprimands a student can be sued by the parents for “infliction of emotional duress” (don’t laugh, it’s happened). In our path towards a feel-good-no-responsibility society, parents are convinced that their children are usually angels and if a teacher says otherwise they’re either A.) lying or B.) incompetent.

Ten years ago I worked as a teacher’s aide in a kindergarten for credit hours (not money). I remember children who would punch, beat, kick at other children and the teacher. On one occasion, teacher took a child by the hand and marched him to the corner for a “time out” after he was caught throwing blocks at a classmate’s head. Mother walked in and saw it and threw a fit that could be heard many doors down. “How dare you drag my child around! You’re gonna lose your job! I’ll sue!” blah, blah, blah.

And sue they do.

This child was behaving like a little monster. I can’t muster a whole lot of empathy.

The real question is, has she thrown a grandiose temper tantrum since?

The appropriate response, in my mind, is a removal from the school and a suspension or even a dismissal from the school. But police officers shouldn’t be called in to put a five year old in handcuffs--that strikes me as wrong on a number of levels. First, it’s a waste of time for a police officer, second, it’s an abdication of responsibility on the school’s part, and, third, if there is ever a time to put a five year old in handcuffs it isn’t when they are having a temper tantrum.

I just heard a story about a potential lawsuit being filed against a school administrator after she restrained a child who was behaving violently towards another child. I understand what you’re talking about, but my point is that the cops shouldn’t be used as an escape valve when the school is worried about something like this. The adults in the area have a responsibility to control the child, not passing the buck onto someone else to make the decision. Do the right thing and then defend it, if need be, in a court.

Part of a big post that I’ve been working on about failed schools is devoted to the huge gap between the authority that parents and the legal system give schools and the expectations that we all have on those schools. My argument will be that part of that gap is real and part of that gap is the result of an unwillingness of the school administrations to allow their employees to use judgment and take action when necessary. The administrations, in a somewhat understandable position, would rather avoid problems by instituting policies that pass the buck outside the schools or by creating zero-tolerance rules that punish good kids mindlessly along with the bad.

I think the parents are raising a little brat, I think the school was irresponsible in even calling the police, and I can’t imagine putting cuffs on a five year old.

Discipline with a five year old shouldn’t have to revolve around “if you don’t do it, I’m going to call the cops” (except in extreme situations), it should revolve around “I’m the parent/authority figure and you are going to do as I tell you. Here are the potential consequence.” Follow-through and consistency count, as does the school showing a willingness to hold the parents responsible for their children. If this is an ongoing problem, they really should simply remove the child from the school.

(And, yeah, that kid is a little monster and I don’t feel much for her, either. I’d have been half-tempted to spank her myself, but probably would’ve saved it all up to verbally abuse the parents for raising that kind of a kid in the first place.)

I’m half surprised they didn’t break out the Taser…

Would have made for a more entertaining video anyway.

Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.

...probably would’ve saved it all up to verbally abuse the parents for raising that kind of a kid in the first place...

Save it for their parents. Or theirs.

Zombyboy mentioned that the teacher should say
“...Here are the potential consequence”

But what if there are no potential consequences that the child even cares about? Other than being kicked out of school, I’m not sure there are consequences available that will get the child’s attention. And I wonder, is kicking them out an option? Don’t they have special schools for dealing with kids like this? Or has the rush to “mainstream” ALL kids together eliminated such options?

Also, there is a greater issue here… this is obviously a re-occuring pattern with this child (as it is with many children). Why do the behaving students have to suffer as countless hours of their education goes down the drain while teachers stop classes to deal with disruptive kids? (not always this scale of disruption… often a few minutes here… a few there) This seems like such a waste of good student’s time.

It is especially the children whose parents DO care but are stuck in educational situations like this that I feel for. It would be great if we could move to a voucher system so that parents stuck in crummy schools could get the hell out (that is… “crummy” either due to the school being bad OR due to being stuck around kids like this).