After reviewing the discussion forum, I realized how much this topic affects me on a personal level. Recently, my life was verbally threaten (as well as other students in my classroom) by another student. There was even a detailed plan of how he was going to carry out his actions. Legally, I discovered that I have no rights as a teacher and I can not take any action to protect myself or my other students. Other than a short-term suspension, the student was allowed to return to the school and my classroom. I am not able to have this student searched before entering the school and no actions can be taken until he/she brings a weapon or follows through with the threat (need to have probable cause).
My job as a teacher is to educate my students as well as provide them with a safe environment to learn. I don't feel like I am able to provide my students with a safe environment to learn when students are aloud to make threats to shoot others. Do I agree that staff should have the option to carry a concealed weapon in school, no, but I think the consequences for verbal threats should not be taken lightly. Teachers should have the right to have students searched (at minimum) if they make verbal threats to harm others.
I totally agree. I was in a situation recently as well. I was tutoring a student who was kicked out of school for a criminal offense. During one of our sessions, he threatened to kill our superintendent because the student believed that he was responsible for not getting to come back to school. Apparently this is not the first time he has made a threat. I heard recently that someone else might tutor this student soon. What does it take before some action takes place. In the Arizona shooting, there were signs that the shooter was a lunatic and nothing was done until after the fact. Some things need to change - times are changing and we need to keep up.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as though this is becoming the norm instead of something that rarely happens in schools. I also received a verbal threat a couple of years ago. The school board took the stand to suspend the student for one semester and then would re-visit the case. Without any warning from the school board or an administrator, the student was allowed to return to school. The student was placed on a behavior plan, and it wasn't long before he had violated numerous items in the plan. Ultimately he was expelled permanently. However, I know that I was constantly on edge. I agree that there should not be concealed weapons in school, but I also feel that something needs to be done to ensure the safety of both staff and students.
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