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Subscribe to RSSA Washington state middle school teacher has been placed on leave after video surfaced showing a student allegedly being roughed up by the teacher and other students.
"I was horrified by what I saw," Chuck Cuzzetto, the acting superintendent at Kopachuck Middle School in Gig Harbor, Wash., told NBC News.
Watch the video above for the full story about the incident.
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Leave a Comment:
Fire the teacher, this was so disgusting.
This makes me MAD AS HELL!!!!!!! When teacher's not only allow this sort of abuse it is WRONG - when a teacher is INVOLVED - REALLY!!! I've been teaching for thirty years and have NEVER seen such a thing!! FIRE HIM, yes! Take his teaching certification away - yes! Make this an example, you idiots, that such behavior WILL NOT be tolerated!!!!! What is wrong with everyone!!!!! Do this NOW!!
ARE YOU KIDDING!!!! Fire him - YES! Take his teaching credentials -YES!!! Make people accountable for their actions - YES! I've been teaching for thirty years, and have NEVER seen such a thing. I could CARE LESS if he's been teaching for eighteen years - obviously noone has ever blown the whistle on this idiot!!! We teachers are MAD AS H— — — that there is even a question as to what to do. If I were the parent, I would also seek legal action!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE!!!!!!!
RIDICULOUS!!!!! He is on paid leave??? FIRE HIM. It is enough that many students deal with bullying from other students but to be encouraged by an adult? Are you serious, by the video the teenage is obviously not enjoying the taunting/laughing by other students or the rough housing and being pulled here or there. This is soooooooo wrong on so many levels and for anyone who thinks this could toughen up the kid? PLEASE. This can psychologically impact him in a negative way. ugh.
Wow. So tenure is so powerful that abusing, humiliating and permanently, psychologically scarring a child, while teaching other students to do this as well, gets one a paid vacation. Amazing.
I totally believe that the parents should file a police report. I think the teacher is guilty of assult and battery and desrves to be arrested and stand trial. The union can do nothing for him if the legal system , rather than the school administration gets involved. I also beleive that the administration should have fired him and let the union file their unfair labor practice complaints and let the chips fall werhe they may. Yhis comes from a 30 public school teacher who is sick of the unions protecting the teachers who are inept. Get rid of them!
Get real.
There was NO mention of a teachers' union here.
And if YOU were ever a teacher, why do you spell so poorly?
Troll.
1. this happened in February
2. HO ? learn how to google, there is a union involved
3. the WHOLE video shows this kid to be a trouble maker, but imo, still no excuse for what we see in the video. Teacher should have put an immediate stop to it.
The WHOLE story, msn for some reason, totally leaves out !
the some reason could be, parents are looking for a payday. kind of reminds me of Oprah, and the guy who wrote a biography about himself that wasnt very true. Oprah had this guy on her show, and told the nation how this poor man, left everyone who read this book in tears, if not near tears... it wasnt until shortly after, she found out she'd been had, :)
its hard to tell if anything other than horseplay was going on, and if you havent seen this growing up with your siblings, or in school... you lived in a closet. i kind of did have to look back at the clip to the part where he was laying across a couple students knees, sure looked like he was being tickled... but what do my eyes know?
There's your goddamn teacher unions! No better than the scum that protected pedophile priests. Unions don't care about kids. They only want to keep the dues flowing in to them.
Silly person.
NO mention of a teachers' union here.
James...you are using a very broad brush to attack teachers as a group simply by the actions of this man. We are hardly scum and care greatly about our profession.
Placing someone on paid leave is a step to get the person out of the classroom while an investigation is conducted. We're still a country of "innocent until proven guilty." Once the investigation is complete, then the school board can decide if they want to fire him. Teacher unions have the struggle, when a teacher's behavior is clearly outside acceptable conduct, of defending the teacher or sticking up for the kids. The parents can and should investigate filing criminal charges.
Well put, Papa.
Everyone is entitled to due process.
no where in the story does it say with pay
It builds character, was he playing around with them or was he distraught about it? Looks from one perspective he could have just been goofing around and the video alone does look wrong, but the kid may have been worried about getting in trouble with his parents, so just went along that his teacher and classmates were hazing him. All in all he should still be fired, that is inappropriate conduct for a teacher. Just don't jump to conclusions based on a video, seeing isn't always believing, especially when there are no comments from either the teacher or the student in the article. A little hazing does a kid good, teaches him the world outside the bubble of suburbia is a real place, with real dangers.
Yes.
Who are you going to believe... the teacher in the video or your lying eyes?
This is the most batsh!t crazy thing I've seen on the internet all week, and that's saying something. What the alpha dudes who conduct the hazing call "building character" often scars the weaker kid who's experiencing the hazing for the rest of his or her life; and as you see time and time again at college campuses, it's often one step away from getting out of control and getting someone killed.
Dude, hazing does NOT build character, it's sick. AND ILLEGAL.
no todays society is pure @!$%#ing wimpy, with their skinny tight jeans, kony 2012 movements, occupy wallstreet crap, I am FAR from alpha male, I was picked on MUCH MUCH worse in highschool, you suburbanites are hardcore sheltered and out of touch with what hard is.
I see why you were picked on.
@HO,
altho finding your comment lacking i will go with it...
i was picked on a lot at school when i was young to, up till i got into HS basically. you see, i can from an abusive family, and coming to school after being beat to sh!t by my father the night before, the bruises left a lot of kids thinking i was easy game to pick on. i was. but one thing you didnt do was hit me, then i would hit back. up until HS kids kind of thought it was kind of ok to bully me. then it sunk in it wasnt.
so i know what being bullied is, and by this video, you cant say he was or wasnt being bullied. this is the same thing i used to see kids doing on the playground daily in a non bully goofing around...
as far as Austin's comment goes, he is right on... you look at someone funny today and right off you are picking on them, child-adult. personally looking at the footage seen thus far (almost a minute out of 14) kind of hard to tell without the rest of the footage, wouldnt one think? (no, that would make too much sense i think)
no todays society is pure @!$%#ing wimpy, with their skinny tight jeans, kony 2012 movements, occupy wallstreet crap, I am FAR from alpha male, I was picked on MUCH MUCH worse in highschool, you suburbanites are hardcore sheltered and out of touch with what hard is.
It's obvious why you were picked on.
Makes me wish you were the kid in the video, Austin. Resentful much?
This teacher should be fired. Police should be involved charge the teacher with child abuse and child endangerment, maybe even assault. This was wrong an many levels, this is not hazing it's bullying, teachers are supposed to stop it not encourage it or be a part of it! And I don't care if he was a teacher for a hundred years!His credentials should be revoked.He should never be allowed to teach again.
There is a petition for an investigation and so far only 52 have signed it. If you would like to add your name:
Please. Don't fire this poor soul. He was just being stupid. He did nothing wrong EXCEPT to violate the LAW! He shouldn't be fired. He should be let alone with big Bubba for a few - years! This is nothing but pure abuse of a child! WTF is wrong with us when priests, teachers can do this poop and all they get is 'suspended'? I wouldn't care if he invented LIFE itself ... 18 years doesn't mean you can do whatever you please. Give him another 18 with Bubba!
The teacher has obviously 'snapped.' The school administration is obviously suffering from extreme cowardice!
The primary tragedy here is that this child had to endure this from the person who should have prevented it from ever happening in the first place.
The second tragedy, or rather indictment is that the school did not do the right thing in the first place. It wasn't until this video surfaced that they began taking any serious action. If I were the superintendent, I would consider disciplining the leadership in the school who wanted to let this teacher off easy. It seems evident that they are more interested in protecting the teachers than the students.
Lock the SOB up and throw away the keys. Tens of thousands of teachers -educators from all walks of life- have taught, encouraged, mentored and when necessary appropriatly and properly disciplined our chldren over the years all without having the complete lack of morality and total disregard for the the proper care, concern and compassion this teacher has demonstrated. The behavior this instructor encouraged will have a far reaching negative impact in the long term over the lives of all those involved.
Hazing: The practice of various Rituals and Other Activities involving Harassment, Abuse, or Humiliation as a way of initiating a person into a group. Hazing is often prohibited by law. Hazing may also be comprised of either physical or psychological abuse.
This student did not volunteer for the hazing as is often the case when joining a fraternity or sports team. It is clear he was harassed, abused and humiliated in front of his classmates. Yes even being tickled against ones wishes is abuse even when it does not appear so. This so called educator showed a complete lapse of moral judgement and character in allowing this to occur in the classroom. He further added insult to injury by encouraging and going along with the wishes of the classmates instead of putting a complete and total halt to the goings on. It seem as though he lost total control of the classroom and in so doing showed a callous disregard for the safety and well being of his charge. This is not a lesson I would want to teach or subject a class to.
That was so disturbing. Why is he on leave? FIRE THE JERK!
That was so disturbing. Why is he on leave? FIRE THE JERK!
Fire him, arrest him, try him, jail him, and sue him. This is not what we pay taxes for in Washington State.
The parents should sue each students" parents. When parents are threatend with financial loss because of their children's behaviour, that behavior will be corrected very quickly. Parents should pay a price for raising their children to believe that this is acceptable behavior. Does anyone remember why the shooters at Columbine commited their acts? It was bullying and harassment by fellow students.... you reap what you sow... unfortunately, innocent people died in the process.