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I can only imagine how the conversation went. 

Teacher A:  If Teacher B told you that you couldn’t work on the project in her room, what would make you think it would be okay to work on it in my room? 

Student:  Uh, I don’t know (looking down, knowing that he tried to pull a fast one and was caught).

Teacher A:  What do you think you should do to resolve this matter with Teacher A?

Student:  Tell her I’m sorry?

Teacher A:  (half joking) Well, I think Teacher A is pretty upset about this.  If I was you, I’d get down on my hands and knees and beg her for forgiveness.

Student:  (realizing everything might work out) Well, OK. 

Teacher A:  (laughing, thinking humor might ease the tension, break the ice) As a matter of fact, I’d probably crawl to her room, to show her how badly you feel about trying to play us against each other.

Student:  (complying) I will. 

Laughter ensues while the student crawls into the other teacher’s room, begging forgiveness.  Everyone moves on. 

Only this is not what happened.  Everyone didn’t move on.  One teacher is on leave and the other teacher no longer works for the district where the incident took place. The school district was forced to pay the student $50,000 for suffering humiliation.

Having worked in the field of education for most of my professional life, I find it incredibly frightening that teachers with perfectly honorable intentions can end up losing their jobs and schools lose money over incidents such as this.  Truly, at another time, in another era, at most the teacher might have thought over what transpired and issued an apology because they unknowingly made the kid feel bad. 

“You know it was all in fun, kiddo.  We didn’t really want to come down too hard on you at the end of the year, but we wanted you to know it wasn’t acceptable.  No hard feelings, ok?  Oh, and what is that in your mouth?” 

The kid smiles at being caught for the third time that week and realizing the teachers aren’t really that bad; they’re just doing their job. “We’re cool.” 

Certainly, there couldn’t have been any malicious intent. Any teenager with a sense of humor would have taken the bait and it would have been a story for the ages.  Teachers working in middle school know all about what passes for humor at that age.  Some of them try to add a little levity to the classroom by trying to joke with the kids.  Sigh.  I’m so tired of political correctness. 

In another scenario, the focus would have been on the student, who did not follow the directions and tried to find a loophole.  The reality is that he should have received a detention for trying to manipulate the adults who were in charge of him and given no credit for the assignment which should have been completed at home.  The teachers, though, from all accounts liked him and tried to use humor to make their point. 

Recently, I heard this conversation transpire in a classroom between a teacher and a group of students huddled around her. 

Teacher: (answering student arguing with her about being in danger of failing) “Who is it hurting when you don’t turn in your assignment?  Is it hurting me?  No, it’s hurting you.  How can I grade an assignment if it isn’t in front of me?  Now all of you know that you lose 11 points a day until the assignment is turned in, but I’m going to give you a break and only take off 22 points even though all of you should be receiving Fs because it has been over five days since the due date.  I’m giving all of you class time to complete and turn in your late work.”

Response from one boy in the group of students: “No, its hurting you because if all of us receive bad grades then our parents will know that you are a bad teacher because this many people shouldn’t receive such low grades and then the principal will have to fire you for doing a bad job.”

No kidding, I listened to this and the teacher didn’t respond.  She had several kids around her and I’m not sure she really heard him, so many were trying to explain themselves. I did, though, and when he saw me looking at him, he said to me, “It’s true, you know.”

I did know… however, dumbstruck at his arrogance, I just looked at him in amazement. 

Joke or not, the district must pay student $50,000. 

Nancy Salvato is president of The Basics Project.