The ajarn dilemma

The ajarn dilemma

When an employer perhaps just wants rid of you


A teacher e-mailed ajarn.com in a state of considerable distress. The teacher stands accused of touching and/or hitting a student and angry parents are forming a lynch mob outside the school gates. The teacher has referred to the whole incident as a 'storm in a glass of water' but delve deeper and could this simply be a case of an employer wanting to get rid of a teacher and any old excuse will do? Unlawfully touching a student just happens to be the most convenient.  

The story starts predictably with an unruly afternoon class of teenagers, whizzed up on a lethal lunchtime cocktail of fizzy drinks and candy from the corner shop. Notebooks are being flung about the classroom, no one is sitting in the correct seat. It's bedlam. At the centre of things is a poor teacher struggling to keep control and failing dismally. But miraculously the lesson eventually gets underway.

The teacher asks a student to come and write something on the whiteboard. The student is having none of it. Can't do it. Won't do it. Who knows? The student just stands there at the board relishing her place in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. A grinning wally milking the entertainment value for all its worth as her classmates egg her on to the next level of defiance. The teacher is sinking fast.

Enough is enough. The teacher places a hand on the student's back and guides her back to her chair in the middle of the classroom. Is it a gentle push? Could it be construed as a 'shove'? Whichever way you look at it, at the end of the school day, the student has rushed home to tell Mom and Mom's beating a warpath to the principal's office. It's time for a meeting of all those concerned - the guilty, the innocent and those we aren't yet sure about.

Suddenly a teacher with several years service at the same school and up to that point, without a single stain on their character, is accused of all sorts of monkey business. The teacher offers to 'apologize' to the student but according to the principal - "the student is too scared to face her punisher". There is only one possible outcome. The teacher has to go.

But in some bizarre ironic twist - the teacher is asked if they would serve out the rest of the semester. In any other country in the world, if the teacher was truly guilty or even suspected of being guilty, they would be immediately escorted off the premises by a security official with a face like prison bread.

The story poses many questions, not least of all what can a teacher do in this situation? How far should a teacher be able to go in order to keep control of a rowdy class? And most importantly - how does this affect a teacher's future employment opportunities? Have any of you teachers out there been in the same boat? How did you handle the situation? Or perhaps you want to make a comment?

In my opinion this could be the classic case of a teacher outstaying their welcome. Sadly, there are schools that view this kind of scenario as manna from Heaven. Faced with the 'awful' and awkward task of sitting down face-to-face with a teacher and telling them their services are no longer required due to budget constraints or something equally plausible, along comes the perfect exit strategy. A student complains and the teacher is made a scapegoat. But of course it's a far better way for a school to get rid of you than simply telling you they don't have any money.          



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