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Threats irk area teachers
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - One of the most vocal critics of violence and threats from students is a teacher at Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School in Hanover.
The teacher spoke to The Examiner under the condition her name not be used because she fears retaliation. She criticized the school’s administration for failing to report a ninth-grader who in March had threatened to bring an Uzi into the school to kill everyone except his friend. The school has since decided to follow a policy of reporting all threats to police after The Examiner broke the Uzi story.
Here are excerpts from an e-mail she sent to The Examiner.
- The spate of violence since September has grown progressively worse, [as Principal Fatih] Kandil’s refusal to adequately or fairly discipline students has reached an all-time high. I had a young man throw a chair at me and call me a “m----- f------ bitch” three times while lunging toward me. I stepped back, and he went into the hall, thankfully. We have none of the required [school system] methods for signaling for help from our class, so I was relieved that he didn’t pulverize me in there. Nothing, nothing was done about it despite two promises. Another teacher has been repeatedly hit by apples and balls in her classroom with little being done about it.
- The [students] in my room throw out threats of raping each other so frequently it makes me sick. One student threatened to kill someone every single day — in class or in the hall. Another teacher and I talked to him, but he said he didn’t care. In class he told me he would “urinate on my head.” [An interim director] later explained to me this is just how the kids play. The same day the student said he would bring an Uzi to class.
- In a recent staff meeting Kandil told the staff the discipline problem is the fault of the teachers who are not earning their pay. If the teachers were more motivated and cheerful, there would be no disciplinary problem at all. This is his usual line.
Editor’s note: Kandil told The Examiner in March that he was unaware of most of the accusations. “My impression is that the school’s no different than in the beginning of the year,” he said. “Are we having issues? Of course we are, as all schools do.”
Comments from Examiner Readers
12:13 PM MST on Fri., Aug. 8, 2008 re: "Battered Baltimore City teacher out of school; accused attackers allowed to return to take tests"
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Tiffani said:
This is a sad story, and he is telling the truth that teachers are undervalued. The children of this city are ignorant and disobedient, but I guess this is what you get when your parents are junkies and really don't care about you. There are few parents in the "inner-city" that actually care enough to teach their children to be good citizens. I think enough is enough when 7th graders are beating up teachers, and what message do the schools send when these kids are not punished.
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