St. Gabriel teacher accused of cruelty

I am a BIG supporter of direct consequences. It is not stated, what her reasoning was for making the child unclog the toilet; however, if the child clogged the toilet with toilet paper (unless he is mentally retarded) HE should have to unclog it. Someone was going to have to do it, it should be the one who was responsible. Any school aged child should know better. If the mother has a problem with that, then she should have to come unclog the toilet. It is time we stop going overboard with children's rights. We do our children injustices when we fail to teach them early about consequences - some times they are not very pretty.

There is probably more to the story than meets the eye.. Kids have a knack of lying. I would love to know the details; however, as a fellow teacher I am going to side with the teacher.

This happened in an elementary school called Shirley Elementary, in Arkansas, as well. Groups of children were mandated to clean bathrooms and toilets under the direct supervision of custodians as a form of punishment. No gloves were used, and the children were exposed to chemicals and bodily fluids. The State Board of Education is investigating, but the local board of education took no action against this adminstration for allowing it to happen. We can no longer assume that all educators are in the classroom to nuture and respect children. This is absolutely inexcusable.

I will not side with the teacher. There may be more to the story but that was just cruel. There are rules set aside by the school as forms of punishment and that is just horrible. No child should be humiliated or have to experience that.

Sure kids lie but that is still no excuse for an EDUCATOR to make a child unclog a toilet with his bare hands. This is totally despicable and inhumane and should not be taken lightly. As a parent I will definetely side with the parents. Who sends their child to school to be punished in this manner.

At least this school district responded in the right way. Who sends their children to school to be punished in this way? I know that the families in Shirley Arkansas do, and are green with envy that they cannot get the same response from their school board. There are so many educators who need support for the hardest job in the nation. We need to have 21st century educators if we are to produce 21st century learners. There are lots of forms of abuse that are tolerated in classrooms. We can no longer assume that all educators are modeling best practice. Again, kudos to this district for its response. Many people live in districts where a blind eye is turned toward child abuse in schools.

This is awful. I feel the teacher should seek another profession. children are often doing things that they shouldn't do but teachers should know and understand the limit of a punishment. This teacher should serve at least a month in jail or work at a jail for a month as a bathroom cleaner. She should use her hands with no gloves. This is cruel. She should be punished to the fullest extent.

I wonder if that is the 4rth time the same kid has put an entire roll of TP in the toilet and flushed it, laughing as it backup and covered the floor, leaving his prank for the janitor to clean up In that case it wouldn't bother me too much.

Here's an idea: Use the teacher's face to unclog a toilet. If it's good enough for a child, it's good enough for her. Then use a horsewhip to run her out of town.

none of you all that are downing this teacher knows what really happened. none of us do. there are alot of sick people in the world and this kid or his parent could have been mad at the teacher and lied on her. there is the possiblity like mud said that this kid could have purposely clogged the toilet with toilet paper and the teacher rightfully made him clean it. lets face it most parents these days do not teach their kids right from wrong or manners. the fact of the matter remains that there is not enough information in the article to know what was even in the toilet so i do not understand why people are so quick to judge on something they dont know anything about. i do have an idea that these are the same parents that dont teach their kids any manners.

We do not know enough information to make any assumptions. But I strongly feel that if the child did something to cause the clog it is completely appropriate for him to clean it up – with the appropriate tools. When you make a mess, you clean it up.

I would like to direct this response to Karen. I believe in my heart that you and I would agree on many issues when it comes to parenting. Children need discipline, and need accountability. I see why you would think that a natural consequence could be in order for a child to right his wrong. I do this with my own children. I have teens. Get a speeding ticket? You will pay. I don't hit , rant, rave, yell, etc. You just pay and move on. With that being said, forcing a child to handle toilet cleaning and bodily fluids is a health issue. Custodians are required to have many hours of training in personal protection, chemicals, handling bodily fluids, etc. If a custodian filed a complaint that he or she was denied training or protection, and made to clean toilets, can you imagine the legal troubles that school would face? Why would we consider placing a child in this situation? There is no safe way to have children in public schools handle bodily fluids and chemicals. Even if a child stuffed a roll of paper in a urinal, it would be dangerous and crazy for a school administator to lash out at this child and place him in more harm's way. Agree, we need accountability, we need rules. However, we do not need to risk a child's health to show that a child made a mistake or bad choice.

I agree with Karen with children being held responsible for their actions no matter what age. That is the way they learn to be responsible for there actions. Now I don't agree with what the Educator did and by her being a educator she should know better and not let the kid get the best of her. We are talking about his feces or someome else feces or urine he had to deal with his hands and that is disgusting and a health hazard.

How could anyone side with the teacher? Julie Landers does not belong around children or humans. Julie Landers at the age of 46 choose to become a teacher, for what reason and not qualified at age 46. She is a lateral entry into an elementary school. That is sick in itself, those young kids deserve a trained teacher, not an imposter. If she is not qualified by age 46, she should not be there.. She is a loser and a bully. Do that to a dog and you go to jail... How many other kids has she abused? This is the type of abuse that creates a murderer and maybe she will be the first victim. Kids become adults and in this sicko society too many sick adults make kids sick adults.

OK you see the point about children lying is that this may all be made up. The teacher may never have made the child do the deed. What if the real story were that the teacher took the child back to the restroom and asked "Did you do this"? The child meekly says "yes". The teacher then says "Some one is going to have to clean this up maybe if you had to do it with your bare hands you wouldn't do anything like this again". The teache then cleans up the mess and she and the child go back to class. Child goes home and says "Mommy, Mommy that awful teacher made me clean out a toilet..." The rest is history as they say.

It does not matter what the kid may have or may not have done if he did or did not clog the toilet purposefully or not. Sanitation dictates that if it was a punishment to NOT touch it with his hands. This is plain common sense. No wonder teachers are considered some of the lowest educated people out of college and no wonder they are some of the lowest paid college educated people. This kid.. could have caught so many different diseases that go along with messing with human fecal matter that this teacher should be charged with endangerment as well. Unbelievable. Suspension or detention is the appropriate punishment for a child not putting his/her life in risk of severely communicable diseases that are carried for a lifetime. Unbelievable.

No one, not even an adult, should be sticking their bare hands in a toilet for ANY reason. This is due to sanitary reasons and being exposed to various dangerous chemicals and/or infectious agents. Hepatits C is just one of the reasons. It doesn't matter if toilet paper or anything else was in the toilet - it is dangerous.... period. As a teacher, you don't expose a child to danger.... period.

Well i dont think the child should be made to unclog it with his HANDS, thats so wrong, and very unprofessional.