An EAA teacher finds themselves defending their career after two students were engaged in a fight tearing up her classroom and her trying to break up the fight with a common wisk broom. The Freep story below is complete with video and story. Comments are welcome at the bottom of the story.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2014305060143
EAA school official: Pershing High teacher could be fired after breaking up fight with broom
8:07 PM, May 6, 2014
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Pershing High School in Detroit is seen on May 06, 2014. A fight occurred in a freshman classroom and a teacher tried to break it up by hitting one of the students with a broom after she couldn't radio security. / Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press
Reaction to firing of Detroit Pershing high school...: Opinions vary on whether it was right for a Pershing High School teacher to be fired after using a broom to break up a serious fight.
A teacher’s job
is in jeopardy because a video circulating online apparently shows her striking a student with a broom in an attempt to break up a fight at Pershing High School in Detroit.
The chancellor of the Education
Achievement Authority, which runs the school, plans to recommend to
the authority’s board of directors that the teacher be terminated, EAA
spokeswoman Chrystal Wilson said Tuesday.
■ Related: Cass Tech QB Jayru Campbell takes plea deal on charges he assaulted guard
“Which means the termination is effective immediately; she will have an opportunity, like any other employee, to meet with the board as they consider this recommendation at its next scheduled board meeting” on June 17, Wilson said in an e-mail.
A video posted online by Fox 2 News shows two male students tussling in a classroom, with punches thrown as the boys collapse into desks and onto the floor. Screams can be heard in the background.
About 33 seconds into the video, a woman can be seen using what appears to be a broom to strike one of the boys. She yells, “Stop!” and “Get off!” A man eventually separates the pair.
■ Related story: Mick McCabe: Detroit Public Schools ignores Michigan law in Cass Tech QB Jayru Campbell case
■ Related story: Stephen Henderson: What Jayru Campbell saga can teach us about violence, race, forgiveness
■ Related story: Drew Sharp: Adults play role in star athletes' bad behavior
The incident happened Wednesday. Wilson said the students are 15 and 16 and in ninth grade. One was suspended for 10 days and the other for three days, she said.
The fight and its aftermath are the talk of the school.
“I feel like if I was there, I would have done the same thing trying to break them up. ... I don’t think she should lose her job or have charges brought against her,” said Natalie Tyson, 36, the mother of a Pershing freshman. “What else could she do? Those guys were kind of big, and they were tearing up the classroom.”
Bernard Barton III, a 19-year-old senior at the school, said the teacher went too far.
“She should have never grabbed the broom. She could have just grabbed the security guard,” he said, adding that the student could’ve gotten hurt by being hit. “She should have gotten charged for it.”
The teacher, whose name was not released, was notified in a May 1 letter about the recommendation that she be terminated. She has not yet indicated to the EAA whether she plans to appeal.
The teacher was hired Jan. 27, Wilson said.
Created in 2011, the EAA is the statewide system for the worst-performing public schools. Teachers in the EAA do not belong to a union.
Earlier this year, EAA Chancellor John Covington said that the district would conduct a discipline audit to address allegations made by some former employees that students have been disciplined harshly.
An online petition on change.org calling for the teacher to get her job back had more than 170 names Tuesday.
Fox 2 News Headlines
is in jeopardy because a video circulating online apparently shows her striking a student with a broom in an attempt to break up a fight at Pershing High School in Detroit.The chancellor of the Education
Achievement Authority, which runs the school, plans to recommend to
the authority’s board of directors that the teacher be terminated, EAA
spokeswoman Chrystal Wilson said Tuesday.■ Related: Cass Tech QB Jayru Campbell takes plea deal on charges he assaulted guard
“Which means the termination is effective immediately; she will have an opportunity, like any other employee, to meet with the board as they consider this recommendation at its next scheduled board meeting” on June 17, Wilson said in an e-mail.
A video posted online by Fox 2 News shows two male students tussling in a classroom, with punches thrown as the boys collapse into desks and onto the floor. Screams can be heard in the background.
About 33 seconds into the video, a woman can be seen using what appears to be a broom to strike one of the boys. She yells, “Stop!” and “Get off!” A man eventually separates the pair.
■ Related story: Mick McCabe: Detroit Public Schools ignores Michigan law in Cass Tech QB Jayru Campbell case
■ Related story: Stephen Henderson: What Jayru Campbell saga can teach us about violence, race, forgiveness
■ Related story: Drew Sharp: Adults play role in star athletes' bad behavior
The incident happened Wednesday. Wilson said the students are 15 and 16 and in ninth grade. One was suspended for 10 days and the other for three days, she said.
The fight and its aftermath are the talk of the school.
“I feel like if I was there, I would have done the same thing trying to break them up. ... I don’t think she should lose her job or have charges brought against her,” said Natalie Tyson, 36, the mother of a Pershing freshman. “What else could she do? Those guys were kind of big, and they were tearing up the classroom.”
Bernard Barton III, a 19-year-old senior at the school, said the teacher went too far.
“She should have never grabbed the broom. She could have just grabbed the security guard,” he said, adding that the student could’ve gotten hurt by being hit. “She should have gotten charged for it.”
The teacher, whose name was not released, was notified in a May 1 letter about the recommendation that she be terminated. She has not yet indicated to the EAA whether she plans to appeal.
The teacher was hired Jan. 27, Wilson said.
Created in 2011, the EAA is the statewide system for the worst-performing public schools. Teachers in the EAA do not belong to a union.
Earlier this year, EAA Chancellor John Covington said that the district would conduct a discipline audit to address allegations made by some former employees that students have been disciplined harshly.
An online petition on change.org calling for the teacher to get her job back had more than 170 names Tuesday.
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