I suppose if you want a board where mopre people are more defensive of teachers, you might want to be on a teachers board.
Yes we know our lovely difficult children are difficult....and we know it to our core, becuz we ARE with them 24-7. Many parents of difficult children did not choose the illnesses their children have (um, well, I guess none of us chose) and many of us had no clue parenting could be THIS hard, and we work 24-7 - we cannot call in sick, cannot "quit" - we are often ridiculed, criticized, shunned........
Yeah, we do know how hard our difficult children can be.
I am a nurse, and when someone wants to post negative about nurses, I understand totally, nurseing is very hard, and there is a severe nurseing shortage and I can tell you sick people do NOT behave their best behavior. ANd nurses get caught in the middle between docs and patients........and get the flack from both. BUT I also am very well aware there ARE some really crummy nurses out there. And when it comes to especially nurses and difficult children........I am certain MANY nurses and difficult child incidents occur........I think all of us parents of difficult children understand difficult children can bring out the worst in anyone.
People come here to this site to vent, to complain, to learn, to cry, sometimes looking for abetter way to handle the experiences they are encountering.
If there were no problems with teachers and difficult children there would not be so many posts on this forum, or at other message boards like conduct disorders.
SOmetimes us lay people do not always understand all the behind the scenes things.......and when we come vent, sometimes we learn maybe our teacher had her (or his) hands "tied behind his back" so to speak. We vent and we learn. Sometimes we handled something poorly, or our difficult child handled something poorly- and we come discuss it here, and we learn.
If we do not discuss these issues, noone will know they exist sometimes.
You cannot take care of a problem if you never speak up and acknowledge it is occuring.
I know you have doubted many many of the things I myself have posted as my experiences over the years about things that have occured in our schools with our teachers and other school personnel.
I can assure you, my experiences that I have posted? I have documentation.......reports, due process transcripts etc. I also have newspaper articles, I have posted in the past.......
You are more than welcome to view them- any time. Just PM me.
You might be an awesome teacher and you might be in an awesome district, but..........not everyone is.
When a person does experience some awful event, if they think it has never happened to anyone else, ever, anywhere, it might make them think THEY caused it, or that it really did not happen. Then they might let it slide. People post these things so they can find better solutions to these problems.
Are there great teachers? Absolutely. I wish I could think of one right this moment, wait, I CAN! and I am gonna name this wonderful man. Mr Masey- he is a Special Education teacher at our HS. My difficult child has not been a student of his now in like 3 years.........BUT I saw hime this week, and this man, bless his heart- he stopped, bought me a soda at the HS (I was there for easy child grad plans etc) and he asked in depth about difficult child.and he cried over her no longer being in public school, while he told me he tried so hard at our due process.......tried so hard to get another teacher to stop being heavy handed and nasty. My dtr did very well in this mans class. This man came to EVERY IEP meeting. He knew her IEP inside out. Bless him, how he found the time, I do not know..........and he advocated for difficult child endlessly, with no luck, with much difficulty from his peers. My appreciation for this man extends to understanding it must have been so hard for him to work with his peers in such a circumstance.
And our HS dean? My difficult children dean? Actually - she QUIT after due process, and she called me to tell me it was becuz she tried but could NOT get the higher ups to back her to make the teachers follow the IEP etc.- and it bothered her SO much, she QUIT.
For the record, I never expected the teachers to do better with my child than I did..........but I DID expect them to honor the IEP. Same as I was always expected to follow a patient treatment plan.
Please do not take it personal when some of us come here with some complaint about something at school. Our children can be exhausting, we can be worn to a frazzle, many of us also have jobs outside our homes and some of us have psychotic children...........if we cannot come here and vent and learn, then where will we go? And if we cannot post links to scary things we see in the news......hopeing that we can help work out some kind of solution, what will become of the children, and sadly, the victims of the teachers that are not such wonderful teachers? If we cannot come here to be reassured - how will we find the courage to send our children to school?
We come here and post about persons that go shoot kids at schools---------that is more rare than the media might have us think.but we post about it, we talk about it, we try to find some way to be able to not be afraid and some way to deal with it. Same is true of the stories of teachers who abuse -----yes, we want school to be a safe place for the students, the teachers- everyone.
As for a teacher? They can quit. If it really gets scary where they are, they can go elsewhere to work. Our kids do not have the same options. In a public school - they go where the district says they go. They are children. And even if they are less than pleasant.....we still have to send them.
Trust me, I did stop sending my kids...........and my kids were never once violent or aggressive. BUT once I realized the degree to which the teachers did not want my kids in their classes? I pulled mine, and homeschool them, even tho I still pay very high property taxes to pay those same teachers.
With all my heart I do wish ALL teachers were good. I wish all nurses were good. I wish all people were good. I also wish all teachers were called to their jobs by their hearts, all nurses called to their jobs by their hearts. But it simply is not true.
So my hat is off to the good teachers...........I appreciate what they do. Just like I appreciate my husband, my Marine, who also did what he did..........just like I appreciate LOTS of people for a job well done.
But I do not need a message board to come ask questions or get comfort for the jobs that have been well done. Instead I do what I have always done for a job well done.write thank you notes, write letters to editor of my newspaper, leave a nice tip, buy little gifts etc.
ALtho there is another part...........when someone is being paid to do their job, I was taught if it is me being paid to do a job, then I should do it the best I can.and if I am paying for a job, it is implied I should get the job done well. Sad that so many now do not do such a great job that when someone DOES do a good job, it is so remarkable.
And gosh in my job, if I did not do such a great job, someone might actually literally die. :-(
Please let us continue to post those scary incidents that scare us for our childrens well being. Our children already have enough challenges some of them just staying alive. Our children did not all ask to be difficult. ANd for many of them, given a choice, they probably would rather not be at school stressing out the teachers.