Student vs. teacher lawsuits have been around for as long as the blackboard. But recently they’ve been on the increase, only no one noticed until now because math scores are down.
According to The National Post, there a slew of Canadian lawsuits in which parents claims teachers are ruining their self-esteem.
One father claims his son’s second grade teacher “purposely and maliciously worked to damage the self-esteem.” Well yeah, she’s a teacher. They have to take a course on damaging self-esteem in college.
Another suit claims a private school teacher intended to inflict emotional distress on another student. Isn’t that why parents pay the extra cash to send their kids to a private school?
25 responses so far ↓
1 veronica // Mar 26, 2008 at 10:09 am
2nd graders dont even know what self esteem is …whatever
2 alexis // Mar 27, 2008 at 10:51 am
They dnt even knw how to spell selfesteem.
3 matt // Mar 27, 2008 at 4:22 pm
maybe not but they are learning your never too old to throw a tantrum
4 Chris // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:09 pm
I hate lawsuits that parents start. and vise versa. I think lawsuits are the most annoying way for someone to get back at someone they dislike. Jack Thompson had a lawsuit against a woman that turned him down on a date. She touched his shoulder and he said it was assault and battery. People need to stop acting so childish when they don’t get their way.
5 matt // Apr 15, 2008 at 9:06 pm
chris that wasnt a date that was his political opponent janet reno
6 Sarah // Apr 16, 2008 at 11:06 am
When I wsa a second-grader, I knew what self-esteem ws, and how to spell it. I agree, however, that parents on the warpath are extremely aggravating, unless the child asks for their help…and then it shouldn’t be a lawsuit.
7 shy // Apr 24, 2008 at 9:03 pm
And to know that these are the very children that will have the future in their hands. Im a mother of three, one relationship. I say that the parents really need to get a grip on reality. Our children Learn by EXAMPLE.
8 May // Apr 28, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Lawsuits are stupid, and so are people who don’t know how to spell.
9 Schultz // May 4, 2008 at 7:25 pm
When I was a child I attended a catholic grade school. In third grade a friend of mine and I were late going back to class after a recess break. Well, Sister Mary…..I’ll just refer to her as Sister Mary Elephant, grabbed both Pat Z. and I by the back of the neck and proceeded to bang…Did I say bang…proceeded to bash our heads together and yelling that we were not to be late ever again…. Granted this was quite awhile ago (giving away my age) but we were never late again. Lawsuit…never…If I would’ve told my dad…well lets put it this way I got off easy with the nun. Have a great day!!
10 EvilGod // Jul 6, 2008 at 3:19 am
So Schultz, you support teachers assaulting students then.
11 TeachingPeanut // Jul 24, 2008 at 4:45 pm
uh….EvilGod….don’t think Shultz is advocating such a horrific form of punishment, but the point is that students need to be punished for wrong doing. I am a teacher myself (if you couldn’t figure it out) and I feel that students need to be punished for what they do. I believe in corporal punishment. Some of these children could really benefit from a good whack on the butt. The bit about banging heads is too harsh in my book as is slapping the face. But a whack on the butt is necessary. Anyone who has had any experience with children will agree that they can be quite the handful and very unruly. And I want you to notice something: notice how that the children of this day and age (and those who were young in the hippie generation) are the ones who are becoming unruly, disrespectful, etc. Those who were raised by stricter parents who spanked them every now and then are the ones who are better behaved (generally). I have a friend who was spanked every so often when she misbehaved. She’s a well-behaved, mature adult now. That said, it should be noted that corporal punishment should have limits. A student should be sent for such punishment for breaking a specific rule or for being disrespectful (in which case the teacher needs to cite 2 incidents in which the child was being disrespectful). What also needs to be considered is that some of what kids do is being a kid. As a teacher, I have to remember that they can’t act like adults. Although they can most certainly be expected to know how to behave in various situations (yes, even the little ones). And being punished for not doing so is all a part of being a kid.
12 Anonymous // Sep 28, 2008 at 9:27 pm
TeachingPeanut… what are you going on about?
13 NavyScott // Oct 29, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I believe it was the teachers job to attack your self esteem they did it you tried harder, got better grades parents nowadays pamper their children too much and think all there children are unique and should be treated like royalty. They can’t recongize that there children are stupid.
14 Sam // May 27, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Its not the teachers fault that the kids weren’t smart enough to grasp the topic and knew it
15 ACE // Jun 17, 2009 at 7:29 am
Even if the kid knows how to spell self esteem, i dont think they understand the concept … And the dad probably had the same teacher and is taking revenge for the spanking he got when he was in 2nd grade… Anyhow, just another way to make money …
16 Anonymous // Oct 3, 2009 at 12:09 am
shouldn’t the parent have simply talked to the teacher and only after their child asked for help?
17 We're Doomed. // Oct 9, 2009 at 11:05 am
“When the life gets challenging, it’s best to flee. Someone else is always at fault.” What the f* kind of douchery is that? What happened to learning how to deal with challenges and rise above? WTF are we teaching these kids?
These suits make teachers afraid to giving good, quality education and hold students accountable. Though I don’t stand behind corporal punishment for children, “spare the rod, spoil the child” – a little discipline here and there – especially during developmental phases – goes a long way. (Incidentally, I am in full favor of having these parents flogged.)
I’m teaching at a university right now, and I have a 20 year old student’s mother harangue me on the phone about her son’s performance. When I told her the student never showed up to class and had slept through one of the tests, she blamed me. WTF.
18 David // Dec 2, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Unfortunately, I have to side with the parents here. If the teachers are bullying the students, they shouldn’t be teaching.
19 anon // Dec 3, 2009 at 8:33 am
david: while you are right in that a teacher shouldn’t be teaching if she truly is bullying students, that’s probably not the case. More than likely the teacher disciplined the student and the parents got mad. I’m a teacher, my parents are both teachers…this kind of thing happens ALL the time.
20 David // Dec 3, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Anon,
I will not disagree to the possibility that some parents overreact, but I still can’t help but feel slightly sympathetic for the students because I went through a very similar situation in fourth grade, where my mother felt that I was exaggerating before she went to a parent-teacher conference and witnessed the teacher’s bullying first-hand.
If it’s any consolation, I, too, am in college, trying to decide between math teacher, and video game designer, as a career, so I can also relate to your side.
21 anon // Dec 3, 2009 at 6:32 pm
David,
I see your point and agree with you. And shame on your fourth grade teacher. I REALLY hope she was fired. That’s just inexcusable and makes the rest of us look bad. It just seems to me that a lot of kids these days (and people in general) are becoming wimpy. It doesn’t take much for them to get upset. Interestingly enough, MY fourth grade teacher was something of a witch (not as bad as yours I’m sure) but I survived. That’s kind of my point: teachers are sometimes mean, but it won’t necessarily do lasting harm and it is sometimes necessary for them to be a bit mean/harsh. But there is DEFINITELY a line. Some cross it and deserve to be fired. But it is a hard line to walk. All in all: I agree with you: sometimes, teachers can be a little harsh, but more often than not, it doesn’t require a lawsuit.
22 David // Dec 3, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Anon,
She wasn’t fired, just relocated to the ninth grade, so by the time my sister (who was older than me) got to the 9th grade, she would have already retired (so yeah, she wasn’t even “punished” punished; she got to keep her 401k and everything).
But on the topic of being wimpy and being yelled at for no reason, keep in mind, the kids aren’t in boot camp. You’re not a drill sergeant. Try this: When I was a kid, my parents still spanked me, but ONLY as a last resort, when non-corporeal punishment did not work. Maybe you should exhaust all peaceful measures before resorting to belittling your students.
23 anon // Dec 3, 2009 at 6:51 pm
David,
Not to worry, I do. Trust me. We don’t have corporeal punishment, but I’ll put kids in time-out, but only if they REALLY need it. I’ll use some examples to illustrate my point: if my parents chide a child (and I mean just talk sternly to the kid, not yelling or anything remotely like that), the parents get PISSED. My parents have a right and duty to remind kids that they need to do their homework, but parents get mad when teachers ask students to complete homework (and I’m not talking about non-completion due to a death or something, I mean the kid was just too lazy to do it). Or sometimes, when kid A decks kid B, and we punish kid A appropriately, kid A’s parents get mad.
That’s pretty much what I’m talking about. Some people these days just don’t seem to understand that if you mess up, you will be disciplined…it seems to me that some people want to do whatever they want (and allow their kids to do the same) with no consequences. That’s what bothers me.
And as for my students, whenever and wherever possible, we don’t even punish, we teach replacement behaviors. For example: if they scream MOVE! We tell them: say move please. Or if they hit someone when they’re mad, I say: use your words. They might be able to get out of time-out if they can use a more appropriate method of communication.
So yes, I can too feel sorry for the kids (I’ve seen teachers and subs punish kids inappropriately and it just makes me mad). I’ve just seen too many cases (btw, I lived in a very wealthy area where a lot of self-entitled butt heads live) where a teacher acts appropriately but parents are mad because a teacher actually punished a kid for mouthing off or something like that. And that’s what went through my mind initially. After your comment, I can better see the kids’ point of view. Don’t know about you, but I think we should hear more of this story, because now that I think about it, it’s not necessarily a dumb lawsuit.
P.S. I work at a school for students who have special needs that cannot be in a regular public school. And we work VERY VERY hard to use as peaceful means of punishment for the kids. And I don’t belittle them. I do joke with them, calling them “Pizza” and “bacon” and “crazy” (don’t ask, they say the same things to me, but they think it’s HYSTERICAL when I say things like that. I even say things like: hey, pizza! do your work! and they laugh and get to work). I think I’ve babbled enough now, but do you see what I mean?
24 David // Dec 3, 2009 at 7:00 pm
If I choose math education as a career, I’ve already decided to lobby my school to install video cameras, for reasons exactly like the one you mentioned (it’s not an invasion of privacy if the parents agree to it in writing; if they don’t like it, they can send their kids to a private school), and I’ll definitely hook up a webcam in my own classroom. The same will go for every room in my own house, in case my kids want to accuse me of child abuse. This way, if it’s my word against theirs, even if it’s my word against ten of them, the video footage can prove my innocence. It will prove if they exaggerated, and it will prove if they are straight-up lieing.
I think Kid A’s parents do that because they are convinced that Kid A is a little angel who would never do anything of the sort, so video footage would prove them right.
Btw, mind if you tell me your email? If I DO choose math education as a career (which, at this point, I’m leaning towards), you can never have too many mentors.
25 anon // Dec 3, 2009 at 7:03 pm
no problem! I’m pretty new to teaching myself, but my experience in the school I’m at has taught me a LOT. email is: sweetalien09@hotmail.com (it’s a zero btw in 09). Just put your name in the subject heading, something like: david from dumblawsuits so that i know it’s you.
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