Tags
Alexa Gonzalez, elementary school, Evelyn Mastroinni, grade school, junior high, middle school, New York, Patrick Timoney, public school, Queens, teachers
Earlier this month officials in two New York Public Schools exhibited total lack of common sense when administering punishment to two students.
First, officials at Junior High 190 in Queens decided that the behavior of Alexa Gonzalez was drastic enough to call the police. Alexa was led from school in handcuffs. You may be wondering what deviant act Alexa committed to warrant such drastic measures. Alexa was guilty of doodling on a desk in green marker. I could understand if she had written something threatening but her name. Guess they had never heard of soap and water or dentition. As a teacher I periodically had to deal with students writing on tables, desk and other items. Usually, I had the offender clean up the mess and if necessary issued a demerit. I never considered anything more drastic than calling parents and in cases of repeat offenders a trip to the principal.
At Public School 52 Patrick Timoney landed in Principal Evelyn Mastroianni’s office for playing with action figure complete with the 2″ shown in the picture. Mastroianni came very close to suspending Patrick. Yes, the action figure had a gun even considering suspension for playing with it is outrageous. Take the up until the end of the day, month or even school year. Make Patrick’s retrieve the toy from the principal’s office but suspension? That is outrageous.
I read these a while back. It is totally insane if you ask me. What kills me is they have “zero tolerance” for this stuff but kids still get bullied, beat up, sexually harassed and assaulted and very little, if anything , is done.
I agree with you and Sandy. Schools have much, much bigger problems than desk doodling or action figures.
The problem with zero tolerance is that someone always gets caught in the middle. I believe in fair application of rules but there is a time for wisdom, common sense and discretion. None of those incidents in my classroom would have warranted even a write up as long as the student wasn’t belligerent or disrespectful.