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The reason I'm asking is because someone in the social services "mix" basically blamed the teacher for this child's death. She said (paraphrasing), "She never should have let that child leave her classroom to go home to his abusers".
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So the social services mix is advocating kidnapping?
Many year ago the state of Connecticut had a very ugly case of a 12 year old who committed suicide. Mother was put on trial, but one person seemed to say it was like everyone seemed most concerned with getting the child's file onto someone else's desk as fast as possible.
One day in class I was showing a film on weather, and I thought I sensed the smell of pot. But I couldn't see anything. A few weeks later another film on weather, and I was subtly watching the class while seeming to grade a few papers. Again I thought I smelled pot, and then I saw a kid put a small metallic pipe into his shirt. I confiscated it -- lit -- and took him to the office. Caught red handed and no doubt about it. My god...smoking pit right in class.
The next day the PPW interviewed me to find out why I was picking on the boy.
Yeah, that irritated me, too. Advocating for the student is one thing but totally ignoring the behavior and excusing it is another.
Not all PPWs did that but enough did that it impacts your attitude.
And the problem becomes that when that kid gets a pass every single time he gets the feeling that nothing, no matter what he does, will touch him at school, that he's got it all wired.
Yes, but that was a change. For a long time, I'm going to say until around 2003ish, our protocol was to report to the Principal who then would dump it-I mean transfer it-to a Counselor. I had a couple prior to that I wondered about since the Principal would ask why I reported the apparent problem.
In 1998 my principal claimed we had to tell him and he’d decide whether to make the report or not. When he decided not to file a report from a minister’s daughter who told me she was being sexually abused I reported it directly anyway. I got written up for it and ended up having to talk to the superintendent. The &$*#@ said they would excuse my “insubordination” this one time. Yes, it was substantiated.
A couple of years later the state tacked a potential $2,500 fine and/or 6 months jail time for interfering with mandated reporting, so I assume that nonsense stopped.
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In 1998 my principal claimed we had to tell him and he’d decide whether to make the report or not. When he decided not to file a report from a minister’s daughter who told me she was being sexually abused I reported it directly anyway. I got written up for it and ended up having to talk to the superintendent. The &$*#@ said they would excuse my “insubordination” this one time. Yes, it was substantiated.
A couple of years later the state tacked a potential $2,500 fine and/or 6 months jail time for interfering with mandated reporting, so I assume that nonsense stopped.
The same thing happened to me without the Superintendent.
This case was all over the news here and it was hard to avoid reading about what this child endured. But the fault was definitely not with the teacher. (And, as someone pointed out, there are few school nurses in California due to budge cuts; rather, a district nurse who is responsible for many schools). The abuse and death of this child was mainly the fault of DCFS--social workers were fired as a result of the way this case was mishandled--and the L.A. Sheriff's Department.
since I posted eariler, just wanted to add a postscript to this thread -
charges were dropped against the 2 social workers + their supervisors for their role in this case.
story is in 7/15/2020 LA Times if you want to read it.
At least it seems you were trying to escalate care. And this poor child was in an emergency EVERY SINGLE DAY. How could there possibly be disciplinary action if a child needs help??
Also, he missed significant time from school due to beatings, why were the police not investigating that??? If the school called and said we contacted CPS last week and gabriel hasnt been back since and its been a week, why would the police not ask to produce the child. They could have killed him and he would have been dead for weeks and nothing would have been done. I assume the mother was calling him out of school but when there is the suspicion of abuse, how is that not a HUGE red flag. I guess its easier from outside looking in. This is why I couldnt go into these lines of work. It would consume my life.
I skipped school for weeks and my parents were never notified. An absence of a student doesn't mean parents know.
I think a large amount of assumptions was done... People thinking all the people involved actually did their jobs or cares. A lot of people don't care and the children should be their own advocate.
Part of the problem for school personnel is determing at what point reporting suspected abuse is justified.
There are some cases that seem so obvious, and yet, as a mandated reporter, time and again I would see CPS (Child Protective Services) not take such cases. Other times we would report a "hunch" that was rather flimsy, just to be on the safe side, and they'd jump all over that case.
About 30 years ago I was teaching in a middle school that included the 9th grade. It was one of the years when I was the chairperson of the faculty advisory council. After each meeting it was my job to meet with the principal and discuss what had come up on the agenda. One time a topic was that teachers suspected that one of the female teachers was having a sexual relationship with one of the 9th grade boys. And I remember that the boy was one of these big kids who looked 18 instead of 14. The principal told me that he had interviewed the teacher about, and interviewed the boy -- with his parents in attendance -- about it. All denied it and the parents were satisfied. The principal asked me if any of the teachers had anything SPECIFIC to report -- something they had actually heard between the two or seen between the two...and no one had. Most of us still thought it might be happening, but should we have gone further WITH ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER?
Part of the problem for school personnel is determing at what point reporting suspected abuse is justified.
There are some cases that seem so obvious, and yet, as a mandated reporter, time and again I would see CPS (Child Protective Services) not take such cases. Other times we would report a "hunch" that was rather flimsy, just to be on the safe side, and they'd jump all over that case.
About 30 years ago I was teaching in a middle school that included the 9th grade. It was one of the years when I was the chairperson of the faculty advisory council. After each meeting it was my job to meet with the principal and discuss what had come up on the agenda. One time a topic was that teachers suspected that one of the female teachers was having a sexual relationship with one of the 9th grade boys. And I remember that the boy was one of these big kids who looked 18 instead of 14. The principal told me that he had interviewed the teacher about, and interviewed the boy -- with his parents in attendance -- about it. All denied it and the parents were satisfied. The principal asked me if any of the teachers had anything SPECIFIC to report -- something they had actually heard between the two or seen between the two...and no one had. Most of us still thought it might be happening, but should we have gone further WITH ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER?
That is such a tough one because chances are high your hunch was right. Years and years ago another teacher and I reported a fellow teacher for what we felt was his inappropriate relationship with a student. The principal did basically the same as your principal did with the same results. Over 20 years later he was charged with having a sexual relationship with a student and former students came forward. I’m not sure if our student was among them, because many stayed anonymous, but I still hate that there were victims after her.
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When I post in bold red that is moderator action and, per the TOS, can only be discussed through Direct Message.
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