Some teachers need a language lesson

This is outrageous! How dare you make blanket accusations in a public forum without giving individual teachers the opportunity to defend themselves. You have just slandered an entire school without prejudice - what an AWFUL parent you must be! I hope your children turn out nothing like you. Any teacher who threatens a student or uses profanity is most certainly subject to punishment by both the CCBOE ethics code and the Professional Standards Commission. You could have chosen to take your claims to both agencies and expected your children to not receive any poor treatement. Instead, you choose the most cowardly and malicious way to let your grievances be aired.

bone, they are not "blanket accusations." The writer very specifically delimited the teacher population and said that "many" (not all, nor even a majority) had engaged in that behavior. As far as your call on this parent to address her concerns with the school administration, it seems that you are not aware of some of the administrative "triumphs" in recent years in both Columbia and Richmond Counties. This letter seems perfectly innocuous to me. If a teacher has been using inappropriate language, this is a call to desist, which seems reasonable. If not, then move to the next letter...

Luanne, God help your children, having been raised in an atmosphere of holier-than-thou "sensitivity", accompanied by cowardice and back-stabbing. The real world is going to eat them alive.

I call BS, John Smith this parent should have addressed this concern while her students were in school, not after the fact. She is a coward and not fitting to come forward now. I agree with bone, she has missed an opportunity to make a difference, and to make a blanket statement that many have heard these infractions is not acceptable. Now it will be left to those parents who do value good education for their students to monitor and report this if seem or heard, when according to her it should have already been addressed. Sounds to me like one of her children did not receive the notice that she felt they should have so now she will retaliate with unsupported BS!

I thought the way to address any school issue was for a complaining flock to gather together and march to the school board. I had two teachers in high school that could somewhat fit the description of what Ms. Schafner refers to above and we used to howl in fits of laughing when our Economics teacher would say, "Shutup, Bucketmouth!" (he called us names all the time) or "siddown, dammit!" No, it's not professional but we all loved him to death. Even when he said he was going to "pinch your head off..." we knew he was funning. It's not ok to be that way anymore, I know, I know. And a "letter to the editor" is hardly the way to handle it. Cowardly is a great word. Sneaking in the back door, if you will. She wouldn't even name the offender(s) in her letter. Jeez, if you're going to let an accusatory cat out of a bag let it ALL the way out.
Bone, are you a teacher? I seem to remember a post of yours a while back that led me to think so. If you are, God bless you - it takes a VERY special person to be a teacher - at ANY grade level. VERY!

Apparently you do not get the point here......Do you know how that student would be treated if a parent complained about a teacher??? There would definitely be problems for that student for the remainder of the school year. Believe me...I know this to be true from experience!

If that happens, you stand and FIGHT. There are procedures to deal with this sort of thing. You can't just hide your head in the sand, especially if your children are being adversely affected.

I have been there done that. And I get the point. 8th Grade. Algebra. The teacher harassed me so badly about my homework not being completed that I ran out of class in tears. The subject was difficult for me and her teaching methods bordered on unintelligible speech and miserable demonstration of explanations on the material. I was even being tutored outside of class to have the stuff reexplained to me. My mother had politely confronted her about my not understanding the homework and from there on out I was greeted with glares and comments under her breath EVERY DAY. My punishment for running out of class was to write a 1 page paper on RESPECT, as ordered by the vice-principal. If it takes meeting after meeting, documentation, conferences, witnesses, or whatever, if enough consistent effort is made to rectify a situation with an unsavory teacher the BOE has to address the situation. And if it doesn't, sadly, the only solution is for the kid to sit still, be quiet, do the work, tune out the crap, and just get out of there. A little sucking up probably wouldn't hurt either. That's life. It hurts, it's hard but it's the real world.

yes, i am a teacher, raindance. i hate to hear that you experienced an uncomfortable situation in algebra class. the world is full of people in authority who seem to enjoy using their ability to humiliate subordinates. i know a few teachers who speak to their students in such an unprofessional manner (both punishing and praising) that i can't believe these teachers have any control over their classes. do remember if you said something to the teacher when you were upset? i'm just curious: writing a paper about respect would seem to indicate that your behavior was beyond embarrassment. regardless, though, i hope you and your teacher were able to talk afterwards. i know i have lost patience before or said something to a student that i later felt the need to apologize for saying. anyway, the crux of my comment is that a parent taking a broad swipe at a school is like a teacher posting crap like "there aren't any motivated students at school anymore like when i was growing up." both statements are equally ridiculous: no school is full of many unprofessional teachers & kids have always had things they'd rather do besides come to school.

Well, I actually went to Lakeside for 4 years and I can tell you that the problem isn't the teachers so much as it is the language rule. Lakeside recently, within a year or two, enacted a swear word punishment for any student who used a curse word. Any teacher that heard the student could then issue him/her ISS, or in school suspension. The problem with this rule is that teachers used it to punish students that they did not like while forgiving those that they did like. I know Mrs. Schafner's son personally and I know that he was strongly subjected to this bias.

Sounds to me like another disgruntled parent with a beef about something else and who is using this as an attempt to blame others for her own children's behavior. After all, it can't be their fault. Good luck lady.

bone, in a world where all people are mature and understanding, your ideals would be perfect.. However, teachers with protection, tenure, nea, page, boe or whatever are in a position to abuse their authority. It doesn't take many to make a students school life miserable and the student is almost never right when he or she complains. Waiting until your child is out of school to complain is a defensive measure, not cowardice.

I don't buy this garbage for one minute. I volunteer at this school on a weekly basis and I know for a fact that teachers are held accountable for their actions. If a parent brings a concern to the administration, they are listened to. If a teacher does something wrong, they are dealt with. I have no patience for parents that make blanket statements about a school when they didn't care about their kids enough to talk to someone at the school about it. Worried about repercussions? Bull! You obviously have sour grapes about something your angel got in trouble for...and I applaud the school for disciplining students for cussing...more schools should do it. LHS has high standards for everyone that walks in that building...you don't get the results that they get year after year without having such expectations. If you don't have the guts to talk to the school on behalf of your child, then you are one negligent parent...and thank goodness you aren't involved with us anymore!
Keep up the great work, LHS!

Wow...I wish Greenbrier High School had the no cursing rule. I heard curse words every single day during the last school year. So many that I think a quarter of the student body would be out in ISS!

longtime, I don't know the situation at LHS, are you saying no people in authority can seek revenge on a student whose parents cause them trouble?

I can't believe how you are all jumping on this lady. Have you asked her if she tried to talk with anyone about this? No, you just all attacked her like a pack of dogs. Did you show any concern for what she spoke about? If this is indeed happening at the school, it seems like it'd be a better use of your energies to work toward eliminating it. And for a teacher not to even realize that the use the word "crap" is inapropriate here, one has to wonder what she comes up with in class.
Pull your fangs in, folks, and make yourself useful in the community.

The irony of lybrothers post is that he/she is attacking all of us bloggers like an angry dog and making a false assumption that we are not useful to the community because we spend a few minutes blogging while we read the newspaper. This editorial is very telling: A Lakeside parent's biggest concern is cuss words, over on the metro section, Richmond Co. is talking about cutting over 100 employees in order to meet the budget. If Schafner were truly concerned about it, she should have said something while her children were there and suffered the consequences. This letter has no power and will make no difference whereas if she had complained to the right people while her children were students, surely it would have been addressed.

After Mrs. Schafners children left school she writes a letter to the editor about problems her children, that are out of high school, had. Why would she stir the pot to help her children if they're out of school? If she were a 'whiner / complainer' wouldn't she complain when it could do her children some good? Why would she suspect that teachers might seek revenge if she made trouble? Is it possible she is pointing out an existing problem to help others? Like I said earlier, I don't know the situation at Lakeside, except what I read, but I did see two posters go ballistic on Mrs. Shafner as a first reaction. What would have been the reaction if she had made these accusations while her children were in school? Who would have received the brunt of the reaction then?

Why didn't this parent record it.. then after graduation expose the teachers if she is worried about the student being treated bad afterwards. It is not acceptable for this type of behavior from teachers.... but... uhmmm how do you expect something to be done if the parents don't want to be the ones to complain and do something about it? The authorities are not psychic. And threatening to kill a student is something that should be reported to the police... you can not threaten to kill anyone.. it is a crime. I take the words of this article with a grain of salt because if it was my student in a hostile classroom with an out of control teacher.. I would not just let it ride not to cause waves. If that teacher snaps and kills someone you will only have yourselves to blame if you don't report it. Maybe she is pointing it out for other people... but maybe they are stretching the truth to her. Either way, I understand the concerns of not making waves... but if it is as bad a claimed, there is no excuse for none of the parents putting a stop to it!! It is hard to belive there are a group of parents who's children have been threatened and the BOE and the police are ignoring them.

You get better service at California Dreaming than you do at McDonald's, right? Do you question them in front of the world? Nope, because you know that you get what you pay for!

huh?