Normally I don't post this kind of stuff but I thought you might be interested

[Moirae]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_871112.html

For those that can't open links, this is something in the Huffington Post about a teacher in Florida who punched a student but won't get charged because what happened was recorded by a student on a cell phone camera. The police say it was self defense.

[Micer]

I actually saw the video to that when it played on our local news, horrible situation, but I don't blame the teacher for having to resort to that, she was pretty much backed into a corner and her request for him to back away only lead to him screaming expletives at her and advancing further. Hell, even I'm willing to call self-defense.

All over the fact that the boy was licking/spitting on a window (?) and refused to clean it up at her request. I won't go further than that because I'll quickly wander in fratching over how horrible our teachers have been painted lately thanks to our 'wonderful' governor voldemort.

Glad the charges were dropped.

[BaristaTrav]

If I'm on the jury.. it's self-defense.

[iradney]

If it has a link, it'll do better in Check It Out So I moved it.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

Sure, phone cameras can be used for impromptu (aka horrible) porn or drunken stupidity... but they can also be used for good.
For once, a teacher is not shat upon. Thank you for posting this.

[draggar]

I call it self defense, too. She said back off, he moved towards her in a threatening manner while shouting.

Self defense.

[Chanlin]

Indeed self defense. I remember when more than half my methods/best practices class got the question "When is it ok to hit a student?" wrong. We more or less went over all the situations where its ok to defend yourself and how far you're allowed to go with it.

[Moirae]

No problem about the moving it. I wasn't sure where to put this.

Oh yes, I'm on the teachers side. Its about time adults stood up to these bullys. And that was really daring on her part considering that she's 64 years old.

[mrstrish]

Let me first say, I think the teacher had every right to defend herself. Now, for not to be punished?

The school has a zero tolerance policy on fighting. Meaning, if a student is backed into a corner by another student, and defends himself, he faces punishment which includes suspension. This is a policy I do not agree with, however I think that the teacher should face the same punishment as a child placed in the same position.

Maybe this incident will make the school district realize what a dangerous policy it has, when it does not allow students to defend themselves, and have a silver lining.

[Dips]

On further thought, this topic is better suited to Fratching. It wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a lively thread about it over there already.

The link is www.fratching.com