Young Turks: Students Fight, Teacher Watches

[CherylK]

Run time: 06:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnCqvRgzjS4   Posted on YouTube: May 12, 2011 By YouTube Member: TheYoungTurks Views on YouTube: 10717   Posted on DU: May 12, 2011 By DU Member: CherylK Views on DU: 1211

 
A high school student in Texas was attacked by a fellow student in his geometry class while his teacher silently watched. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss.

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[PotatoChip]

1. WTH? That is just SO messed up. nt.

[tomm2thumbs]

2. 100% Fire him!

seen enough

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. The teachers are in a bad place here

Intervene and they could get fired and sued, not to mention hurt. Not all teachers are big guys...

Not intervene and get famous via a viral video clip.

[tblue37]

10. That video and the secnd one show, I think, that this teacher is

not worried about getting hurt. He likes to see students punching each other out, like those prison guards who stage fights between prisoners for their own entertainment.

He might not openly set the fights up, but the kids obviously know that he doesn't mind when they happen in his class, so of course they do happen.

[AllTooEasy]

4. Check the school board rules before judging the teaher.

I lived in Prince George's County Maryland. There's a high school there called Parkdale. About a decade ago, a male teacher broke up a fight between two girls. He grab one from behind and pulled her away. She accused him of touching her inappropriately! He won, but the hastle of paper work and meetings is enough of a deterent. Plus, he still has that accussation on his record, even though he was never found guilty.

[ihavenobias]

5. There's no rule that says you can't at the very least SAY something.

There's no justification for not even raising your voice and telling the attacker to stop. Inexcusable.

[gadjitfreek]

6. I will not physically intervene in a fight.

As a teacher, you lose ether way. If you get involved, you get fired for using excessive force or inappropriate touching. If you don't, you get fired for not breaking it up. If I am going to lose my job, I'd rather not get my head punched in into the bargain. I'll call for security and yell, but I am not trained at self-defense. Fortunately, it's never come to that in my class. I'm not a prison guard, don't expect me to act as one.

[sulphurdunn]

7. This real issue does not seem

to actually be about whether or not a this teacher should have physically intervened in a fight. From all appearances he had his own little fight club going on and was playing referee.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. That certainly was the spin some went for, and I have a hard time believing that

from any teacher.

Those who point out that there are options between getting in harms way and doing nothing have a good point. Like to know more of the history of the school, administration, and teacher when it came to classroom violence and how it was handled.

[sulphurdunn]

9. If the video is for real

the guy did nothing to impede the prelude to or escalation of violence in his classroom. I've been teaching for twenty years. I spent two of those years in a rough school in Prince George's County, and I broke up plenty of fights, but I've never seen nor even heard of anything like what I saw on that video. I honestly don't know what to think, but you are correct in reminding me to withhold judgement sans all of the facts.

[tblue37]

11. Obviously many people who are commenting on this thread have not watched the

whole video! There is a second video of another fight in this same teacher's class, in which one student had time to take off his shirt and shoes before starting to fight, and in which it was obvious that the teaacher is watching the fight the way one watches live entertainment.

Once is a freak occurrence. But this sort of thing apparently happens more than just once in this guy's class!