A middle-school principal threatened to kill science teachers and himself if students didn’t improve their scores on the Texas state exam, claims a New Braunfels teacher.
(Teacher Anita White) said (Principal John) Burks was angry that scores on benchmark tests were not better, and the scores on the upcoming Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests must show improvement.
“He said if the TAKS scores were not as expected he would kill the teachers,” White said. “He said ‘I will kill you all and kill myself.’ He finished the meeting that way and we were in shock. Obviously, we talked about it among ourselves. He just threatened our lives. After he threatened to kill us, he said, ‘You don’t know how ruthless I can be.’
Police are investigating.
Teachers’ union officials blame No Child Left Behind, notes Mike Antonucci. Don’t let this motivational tactic spread to Las Vegas, he warns: There’d be a massacre of math teachers.
The floggings will continue until morale improves.
That’s got to be a violation of the union contract.
Okay, let me get this straight:
A child draws a picture of a gun in a scene depicting a WWII battle and he is sent home on suspension and his parents are told to send him to a psychologist, and he is possibly even sent to the “alternative school.”
A principal says “I will kill you and myself” to his teachers if the TAKS scores are not “as expected” and it’s “police are investigating.” It doesn’t even sound like the principal was “placed on administrative leave,” as they say.
I realize that the story doesn’t convey the tone - although I’m guessing it wasn’t a funny-funny joking tone. But if I were a teacher in that district? I think I’d be using my accumulated sick leave until that principal was gone, and I’d probably put in for a transfer for good measure.
It may be that the idea that there’s a professional responsibility to educate kids has resulted in a certain amount of panic. Or possibly this is part of the process of exploring alternative means of motivating students.
Maybe the principal was just announcing a new district policy?
maybe it was just a light hearted joke? I say this all the time, in a light hearted way. Maybe people just need to get a sense of humor.
sheesh.
People who do not think are sentenced to feel. I,ve noticed that the more emotionaly sensitive a person is, the less sophisticated their sense of humor tends to be. In a previously hypersensitive time in my school district, a teacher stood up during a laboriously saccharin mandatory assembly and shouted, “That’s enough! If I have to sit through one more Suicide Awareness and Prevention Lecture, I’m going to kill myself!”
It worked. After the laughter subsided, reason prevailed and we went back to earning our pay.