Grand Ridge teacher duct tapes student

eddy I do have to correct you on one thing. She was not moved to just the middle school. She was moved as the math coach for the ENTIRE school! If all the parents would come out with complaints that they have tried to resolve with GR, the school board would be earning their money for a while! Humm there’s a thought. I’ve got a book of them, anyone else?

I think this is an issue.  I can’t help but believe that if these teachers worked in an environment where hitting a child was never an option and never permitted - then these more extreme forms of punishment would 1) be less likely to happen and 2) be less likely to be ignored by the school board.

I was as disturbed as it seems most of the readers posting here were when they heard the news from Grand Ridge School.  I believe, however, that this incident points to a larger problem in our schools that needs to be discussed - that of corporal punishment.  I know that many people from the Jackson county area support the use of corporal punishment (spanking) in schools and by no means am I suggesting that schools not be able to exercise various forms of discipline towards students. It is important, however, to discuss what is know about corporal punishment:

2/3 of Florida districts allow corporal punishment although 6 of the 7 largest districts have ban the use.
28 state in the US have banned corporal punishment in schools
The statewide percentage of students who received corporal punishment in 06-07 was less than 1%.  In Jackson County, nearly 10% of students received corporal punishment (fldoe.org).

Moreover, the American Psychological Association, has issued a statement opposing the use of corporal punishment as an effective disciplinary tool in schools, stating that:

Council voted to adopt the following resolution on corporal punishment:

WHEREAS: The resort to corporal punishment tends to reduce the likelihood of employing more effective, humane, and creative ways of interacting with children;

WHEREAS: it is evident that socially acceptable goals of education, training, and socialization can be achieved without the use of physical violence against children, and that children so raised, grow to moral and competent adulthood;

WHEREAS: Corporal punishment intended to influence “undesirable responses” may create in the child the impression that he or she is an “undesirable person”; and an impression that lowers self-esteem and may have chronic consequences;

WHEREAS: Research has shown that to a considerable extent children learn by imitating the behavior of adults, especially those they are dependent upon; and the use of corporal punishment by adults having authority over children is likely to train children to use physical violence to control behavior rather than rational persuasion, education, and intelligent forms of both positive and negative reinforcement;

WHEREAS: Research has shown that the effective use of punishment in eliminating undesirable behavior requires precision in timing, duration, intensity, and specificity, as well as considerable sophistication in controlling a variety of relevant environmental and cognitive factors, such that punishment administered in institutional settings, without attention to all these factors, is likely to instill hostility, rage, and a sense of powerlessness without reducing the undesirable behavior;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: That the American Psychological Association opposes the use of corporal punishment in schools, juvenile facilities, child care nurseries, and all other institutions, public or private, where children are cared for or educated (Conger, 1975).

I know it will be awhile before Jackson County comes around to the same conclusion.  In the meantime, my children will have a note in their file.

This teacher is so out of control. If everything was “resolved” why is the child no longer in the Jackson County School System?  If it is resolved, why has that same teacher been taken out of the classroom and given a “math coaching job”?  Why not look at the other allegations of verbal abuse and one incident of physical abuse by that teacher?  Why not talk to the kid(s) that she snatches up by their collar on a regular basis who are too intimidated to speak out?  Oh that’s right, we don’t know about those because the administration at Grand Ridge wants the bad publicity to be somewhere else.  A politically incorrect words gets your face plastered on the front page of the Floridan for weeks, makes national news and this, although also done to an African-American child barely makes news and the teacher continues to roam the halls and draw a check at the taxpayers money.  That’s what I call a real fair system we have in place.  Mr. Miller, we beg you, stop with your promotions and jobs that were not promised prior to election and work on making the schools safe again.

freedom, thought about it long and hard. The only way to make any true change to our school(s) and school board is to bring in a complete change of staff. The people in admin and the school board are to comfortable in their positions and think that they can bully the parents and children in what ever manner that they want. You know I have not heard your ideas of how to “fix” any of this either. So us parents that are already dealing with this will continue on doing what we are doing the best we can figuring out each and every day more ways of exposing what they are doing, because most of it the general public has no idea it is happening. Somewhere along the way we will achieve what we have set out to do to help our children be safe and happy. BTW that was a very rude comment you made to letinanewton, shame on you.