In this morning's New York Times, an essay on the Op-Ed page reminded Rebel Girl of horseheads and scissors and other recent occurrences.
Rebel Girl knew from the title, "Each Teacher Wonders, Is This the One?" exactly what the writer was up to.
Alexandrea J. Ravenelle, a part-time sociology teacher at various colleges in New York City writes about her classroom encounters with angry students and puts them in the context of violence on campus, the vulnerability of the classroom teacher and the absence of effective processes to assess threats.
excerpt:
But students have also gotten angry at me and blown up. I’m used to people crying when they don’t get the grades they think they deserve. A woman once threw an umbrella across the length of the classroom because I marked her late. When I told another student that he had been dropped from the class for nonattendance, he recorded the exchange and threatened to report me to my supervisor...To read the article in its entirety, (and you should), click here.
I know I’m not the only teacher who, facing down an angry student, worries that he could come back firing off more than snide comments.
The levels of trust and openness that are necessary for teaching are diminished every time someone opens fire in a classroom. Idle comments become vaguely menacing threats. Classrooms are no longer just about learning but also about observing — watching to see who seems upset, uninvolved, angry.
In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting, schools were quick to institute (and advertise) new text-message alert systems and extra security measures. But in my experience they’ve been less clear on how to report worrisome behavior or determine if a threat is legitimate.
*
image by Jing Wei (from the New York Times)
8 comments:
I once was asked as night dean (back when we had faculty chairs rather than deans) to take attendance as students filed into a fee-based class and deny entrance to a particularly worrisome student. I dutifully arrived early, asking student names as they entered the classroom, and stopped a particular student from entering unless she could pay for the class. Seems her credit card had been declined previously, and she had attended the past two class sessions without paying. She tried to walk past me. I stood in the doorway and blocked her entrance. This went on for two hours. Campus police came by and talked with her to no avail. She insisted that she gain entrance. Long story short, we stood toe to toe for the entire two hours. Students inside the classroom were afraid to exit at the end of the session. She was obviously mentally/emotionally challenged. I often thought she'd be back to get even with me. Nothing ever came of it.
In other words, you support the civility initiative. Me too. The horse head incident demonstrates that violence is not only committed by students. Did you hear about the teacher shooting his headmistress recently?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/06/authorities-2-dead-at-jacksonville-high-school-814252200/
I read this too and thought of how these incidents are handled - and not handled - on our campus. I believe the current system we have discourages faculty from reporting such behavior and then when one does, there is the distinct feeling that one has done absolutely nothing.
2:21,
I think shooting people is also covered by other regulations other than the "civility initiative."
If you read the NY Times article Rebel Girl posted, you'd discover that the author mentions the incident you refer to - and other points as well. This goes beyond civility. Way beyond. The kind of behavior cited here is unlikely to be influenced by a "civility initiative."
Why "civility" is such a big issue and not the increasing presence of increasingly aggressive and disturbed students on campus and in our classrooms is beyond me. At least the blog will provide documentation of these ongoing concerns if, god forbid, we ever have a real crisis on campus.
yeah, I'd like the see how well the student cited above would have responded to a dramatic reading of he "civility initiative."
I do believe they have finally done away with the night dean position - at least in terms of dept. chairs.
But I don't know who is in charge at night either anymore. The chain of command after the sun sets is a bit shaky.
I can't imagine that the civility push is going to prevent a violent event from happening on campus. It may make the administrators feel more comfortable knowing they have a tool to squelch dissent.
Due process...
Lerry Mantle on KPCC's Air Talk had a show about this topic awhile back. It seems that admin likes to downplay these incidents - which in turn create more problems. yes, there is due process but you'd think some kind of overture from the administrators to the faculty who have to deal with such things would be forthcoming. Last year the two new hires who faced this circumstance were treated worse than shabbily. It would have been nice for the prez or VP to have shown up and said, "Gosh, how terrible. So sorry." the admin in charge of this stuff just seems put out each time. Very ill-suited to this part of her duties.
Post a Comment