This week, my granddaughter’s school made the news on the local talk radio station, the local paper and two Boston TV stations.
A 10 year old in one of the fifth grade classes had made threats against his fellow students, and the school administration, including the superintendent, tried to sweep it under the rug.
The administration didn’t report this incident to the police, or remove the child from the building, or get a psychiatric eval, all of which is SOP in other school systems.
The classroom teacher tried to discuss this with her management, only to be rebuffed with a “what do you want me to do about it?” and a public “we handled the incident appropriately.”
The Mashpee schools are top-heavy with administrators to start with, and at least a few have made the papers because they don’t have the creds for their high-paying jobs.
Meanwhile, the teacher decided not to show up for work, costing the town $80/day to hire substitutes. That’s $400 for last week, and the teacher has no immediate plans to return to her job.
Well, being a private sector gal, in most places where I’ve worked, not presenting good cause for staying home from work is grounds for dismissal.
Also, if I were a hard-working PTO member, I’d wonder how many damned cakes and cookies I’d have to make to raise $400 for the school.
On the flip side, one suspects that a teacher who’s been in the system for 9 years was probably driven over the edge, not so much by the kid, but by what is obviously a staggeringly inept “chain of command”, as she put it.
And what about the boy? I daresay that this was not the first time he’s spoken unsociable thoughts out loud. Maybe he’s the victim of bullying, and maybe that was his way of asking for help.
I’m hoping, although I’d be very surprised, that the amount of outrage over the way this incident was mishandled will cause more parents and other citizens to take more of an active, even militant, attitude about the public schools in this town.
As in most places, the school department is the town’s biggest line item, and it’s been permitted to run with, literally, no oversight on the part of taxpayers and even parents. We have a lousy school committee, a lousy superintendent, and at least one lousy principal. We all deserve a good deal better.