Quote:A school board in Tennessee recommended that an elementary school principal be fired this week after surveillance video showed her dragging a special needs student through the hallway by his ankles.

What happened?

In a school board meeting on Thursday, board members voted 5-2 to pass a recommendation for termination, accusing Walter Hill Elementary Principal Helen Campbell of unprofessional conduct, conduct unbecoming of a member of the teaching profession, insubordination, and neglect of duty, according to WZTV-TV.

Rutherford County Director of Schools Bill Spurlock stated that on Nov. 4, 2019, Campbell was seen pulling the child by his arm from a chair and grabbing him by the belt after he allegedly failed to comply with a request.

According to surveillance footage, she then dragged him by his wrists into the hallway outside the school's front office. Once there, another staff member, teacher Bonnie Marlar, helped her drag the student by his ankles some 500 feet through the hallway to the back of the school where he was left isolated in a room.

The student reportedly sustained minor injuries and the incident resulted in child abuse charges being filed. Those charges, however, were later dismissed. Both Campbell and Marlar were also placed under investigative suspension following the incident.

What else?

During the meeting, Spurlock noted that Campbell is accused of attempting to destroy evidence by deleting video footage of her actions from the school's security cameras, but was unsuccessful.

Though in order to protect the child's identity, the board refrained from showing the full video at the meeting, instead choosing to display still images from it.

In late 2019, after reports surfaced about the incident, Rutherford County Schools stated that the video footage showed the student "was not attempting to harm themself, any other students or any employees" before he was manhandled.

The district further said that Campbell and Marlar dragged the student from a chair in the office "when the student did not appear to be aggressive or threatening to anyone."

Anything else?

The board's decision to recommend Campbell for termination was not unanimous.

One board member, Tammy Sharp, called Campbell a "phenomenal" principal and argued the vote to fire her was "disgusting" in the absence of more context.

"Not one of us on this board have spoken to Ms. Campbell. We don't know the background of this student, we don't know what his issues were," Sharp claimed. "I think it's disgusting and I'm sure our teachers that deal with problems like this every day have a chill down their back today and they're looking for more jobs."

She reportedly called for a dismissal of the vote, which failed to pass.

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This is my kids school district and after reading Mom's facebook post about it back then she's lucky she didn't get her a$$ beat.

You don't drag a kid (I believe he was a 2nd or 3rd grader at the time) through the school by their feet. Then to double down on your stupidity you incompetently try to destroy evidence of the thing that you said wasn't inappropriate.

No Ms. Sharp, other teachers do not have chill down their spine because they aren't going drag an elementary student by their legs down a hallway.

Prob used the wrong pronouns

I’m sure he was minding his own business when the mean principal grabbed him.

Yeah, without context it’s hard to say. Both my wife and daughter are elementary teachers and most would be surprised with the level “oppositional defiance disorder” and violence they deal with from 7-10 year old kids every day. You simply have kids that will tell you F off to your face while running around the room hitting other kids in the middle of class. If you try to get them to sit down they will strike you.

They not only place everyone in danger, they destroy the ability of all children in the class to learn and the teacher to teach. It’s not rare either, but a growing percentage of the student body.

(05-27-2022 05:47 PM)banker Wrote:  Yeah, without context it’s hard to say. Both my wife and daughter are elementary teachers and most would be surprised with the level “oppositional defiance disorder” and violence they deal with from 7-10 year old kids every day. You simply have kids that will tell you F off to your face while running around the room hitting other kids in the middle of class. If you try to get them to sit down they will strike you.

They not only place everyone in danger, they destroy the ability of all children in the class to learn and the teacher to teach. It’s not rare either, but a growing percentage of the student body.

Yep. My wife is as well. I showed her this post and she said there is a standing joke with her co-workers about being "this teacher" who gets caught on video. These little kids are stronger than people realize and many of them are just down-right mean. There was a 6 year old who clocked a teacher's aide in the face this year and broke her nose... and we live in a "good" school district.

Their used to be a time where these more violent students were isolated, but parents want their kids "main-streamed". Nobody prevails in that situation.

(05-27-2022 05:56 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(05-27-2022 05:47 PM)banker Wrote:  Yeah, without context it’s hard to say. Both my wife and daughter are elementary teachers and most would be surprised with the level “oppositional defiance disorder” and violence they deal with from 7-10 year old kids every day. You simply have kids that will tell you F off to your face while running around the room hitting other kids in the middle of class. If you try to get them to sit down they will strike you.

They not only place everyone in danger, they destroy the ability of all children in the class to learn and the teacher to teach. It’s not rare either, but a growing percentage of the student body.

Yep. My wife is as well. I showed her this post and she said there is a standing joke with her co-workers about being "this teacher" who gets caught on video. These little kids are stronger than people realize and many of them are just down-right mean. There was a 6 year old who clocked a teacher's aide in the face this year and broke her nose... and we live in a "good" school district.

Their used to be a time where these more violent students were isolated, but parents want their kids "main-streamed". Nobody prevails in that situation.

My mom's second career was as an Elementary School librarian. When she was student teaching at a mid school, a kid was caught putting some sort of cleaner in the teacher's coffee. Then at an elementary school she worked at a kid kicked a pregnant teacher in her stomach.

(05-27-2022 05:56 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(05-27-2022 05:47 PM)banker Wrote:  Yeah, without context it’s hard to say. Both my wife and daughter are elementary teachers and most would be surprised with the level “oppositional defiance disorder” and violence they deal with from 7-10 year old kids every day. You simply have kids that will tell you F off to your face while running around the room hitting other kids in the middle of class. If you try to get them to sit down they will strike you.

They not only place everyone in danger, they destroy the ability of all children in the class to learn and the teacher to teach. It’s not rare either, but a growing percentage of the student body.

Yep. My wife is as well. I showed her this post and she said there is a standing joke with her co-workers about being "this teacher" who gets caught on video. These little kids are stronger than people realize and many of them are just down-right mean. There was a 6 year old who clocked a teacher's aide in the face this year and broke her nose... and we live in a "good" school district.

Their used to be a time where these more violent students were isolated, but parents want their kids "main-streamed". Nobody prevails in that situation.

They used to be able to send these kids to special schools where both staff and teachers were trained to deal with kids that were “off the hook”.

In the early 90s they passed laws to “mainstream” kids with all kinds of issues. Fact is schools aren’t staffed or funded to adequately deal with many kids with big issues. The end result is teachers spend a ridiculous amount of time deals with a couple of kids and don’t get to teach the rest.

……but a politician can tout how kids are mainstreamed……..

I have to hear the details.

Was this a kid who refused to wear his mask?

Was this a kid who was violently attacking other students?


Details make a difference.

(05-27-2022 11:24 PM)umbluegray Wrote:  I have to hear the details.

Was this a kid who refused to wear his mask?

Was this a kid who was violently attacking other students?


Details make a difference.

This

Why do we have zero details about the kid or what led up to this?

As bad as this looks I'm always skeptical when KEY details that could possibly reshape the entire story are clearly missing or just left extremely vague.

If a kid was violently attacking others or just giving teacher or the principle the most vile and profane tongue lashing non stop I might do the kid the same way. Its also possible the principle was totally out of the line and way overreacted to something. Because we have so few details and no background it could go the other way in dramatic fashion.

Any why does its say the kid was special needs? How is he special needs? How does that apply to the story? There are certainly special needs kids, but we also are way too loose with that term now days. If he is really special needs that could be a serious part of the story, or it could be just to gin up more anger and outrage.

This article doesn't do a good job of explaining the original incident. Our local paper is behind a paywall but this should give some more context
1) the kid had autism.
2) He was in a special needs classroom
3) the other woman suspended was the special needs teacher
4) surveillance video shows the kid was calmly sitting on a couch by himself before he was grabbed and drug from the room
5) Neither woman has made a public comment about what lead up to the incident.
6) though a judge dismissed the initial charges brought against them, the DA took the case to a grand jury who did bring charges against them

(05-27-2022 04:34 PM)bobdizole Wrote:  This is my kids school district and after reading Mom's facebook post about it back then she's lucky she didn't get her a$$ beat.

You don't drag a kid (I believe he was a 2nd or 3rd grader at the time) through the school by their feet. Then to double down on your stupidity you incompetently try to destroy evidence of the thing that you said wasn't inappropriate.

No Ms. Sharp, other teachers do not have chill down their spine because they aren't going drag an elementary student by their legs down a hallway.

Well, don’t keep me in suspense. What is the correct way to drag them?

I can't believe they rush to fire someone without at least getting their side of the story.