Thursday, March 21, 2013

Teachers may be the next target for supposed unreported bullying.

So why not blame a teacher for not reporting bullying, even if they never saw or heard anything, and then fine them $200 for the heck of it.

Instead of blaming the bully, teachers will be sought out and made the scapegoat for overzealous parents and irresponsible principals.
Stevens Point Journal: Teachers and other school district employees would face $200 fines if they fail to report bullying incidents under a bill being circulated by a Republican lawmaker.

But some school advocates worry the bill would have unintended consequences. “I think it creates incentives in the wrong directions,” said Dan Rossmiller, director of government relations for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. He said he fears the proposal could lead to teachers over-identifying student behavior as bullying due to fears of being penalized, or districts narrowing the definition of bullying.
Again, I really think this is another way to trash teachers, blame them for a few more of the problems in our schools. For instance, the author of the bill is simply going by the hearsay of a parent who supposedly told a teacher of bullying. Well, if the teacher doesn't witness the bullying, the teacher is then blamed.
But the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Garey Bies, R-Sister Bay, said parents have told him they talked to teachers about bullying problems but “nothing was ever done.” law doesn't include penalties for those who fail to report the behavior.
As a parent who's experienced this problem first hand, I called the parents of the bully myself. When do parents take some responsibility. The GOP is always trying to "empower" parents with school choice, how about bullying?

Like a true authoritarian disciplinarian, Bies will teach those teachers a lesson.
“I thought maybe we need to put more incentive into somebody following through,” Bies said. “To me, it’s an insurance policy,” he said.
To me it’s bullying teachers.

2 comments:

  1. If there is a teacher left in Wisconsin ten years from now we'll be lucky.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another step in the school to prison chain gang for beefing up the inmate numbers prior to selling WI prisons to private contractors.

    Garey Bies is Chair of the Committee on Corrections. He also recently introduced the additional fees on FOIA requests.

    Someone should be asking Bies (FOIA) to see all the complaints he claims he has had from parents that teachers are to blame here for failing to report.

    ReplyDelete