Being Falsely Accused as a Teacher
Have you ever been in a situation of being accused of a wrong doing by a student? Have you ever worried about repercussions of disciplining a vindictive student? Have you ever been under investigation by Child Protective Services because of something that was reported that occurred in your classroom? Have you ever seen your career and possibly your life flash before your eyes because you know you have been falsely accused of some form of abuse by a student and their family? If you can answer yes to any of the previous questions, you will be empathetic to the teachers and their stories in this video from Video On Demand/ABC News. If you can’t answer yes to any of the previous questions consider yourself lucky and watch in dismay as these teachers endured horrible circumstances because they were accused of something and could do nothing against public scrutiny to prove themselves innocent. It made my skin crawl after watching the video because the statistics show that music teachers are most likely to be involved in an ordeal like this because of the nature of their work. I am a music teacher and can totally relate to that statement.
There are many different ways a teacher can find themselves in ‘hot water’. Students claim sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse just to name a few. The minute the accusations fly the teacher is automatically presumed guilty. Just like the beginning of the ABC video indicated, there is now a heightened awareness of these offenses and swift action is taken to fix the problem. In the case of Albert Thompson, the substitute from Chicago, he subbed in a classroom for one day. When he woke the next morning he was the headline on the news. Kids reported he fondled them. He hadn’t even been notified by authorities and the school was calling in counselors to help kids that had been traumatized. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? It turns out he was innocent. Thanks to careful police work, it was discovered that a 4th grade student was upset about being disciplined so she bribed her classmates with a dollar if they would make up stories to get the sub in trouble. The charges were dropped in a short time, but how do you recover from that? You never do. Trust me, I know. I was in this very same boat. I went through a CPS investigation. I had no support from administration, and my union rep told me to just apologize to the family and all would go away. Thank goodness for scrupulous investigating by the CPS rep (she was the one I feared the most and she turned out to be my biggest ally). She deemed the accusations to be invalid and all was dismissed. I was lucky, no real lasting implications, except in my own private hell.
If you Google or Dogpile these three words: Falsely Accused Teachers, you will find endless articles of the plight of wrongly accused teachers. It is simply heartbreaking. It is hard enough as it is to be a teacher, let alone have to worry on a daily basis about what a student could go home and make up about you. What ever happened to just being a teacher?
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It's what this world is coming to. It's nothing like what our parents and grandparents had to deal with, at least not publically. Of course issues were there in the days of old and abuses happened. In today's media blitz, we've got people gunning for great stories. What better source than the most imaginative people on the planet, children? Do we think that our kids haven't noticed how easy it can be to control a situation? Do you suppose they will ever feel horrible for ruining a teacher's life? To them, a teacher is ruining their life by making them retake a test, or have them miss 5 minutes of recess for poor behavior. To ruin an adolesent's life means you simply have to make a choice to discipline them in hopes of fostering positive future choices by the student. Before, they'd go home and be grounded or disciplined in a manor that was worse than what the school could administer. Kids found a refuge in school detentions or the classroom from disappointed parents who grounded them and made it more clear failing wasn't an option, or disobeying in school was a mistake. Now, kids just go home and make up a story with a few other kids to ruin the teacher's life and the parents come back to the school questioning all authority.
ReplyDeletePersonaly, I've dealt with this sort of behavior many times over the years. Fortunately, not beyond my control. If it was up to me, I'd say that laws need to be put into place to protect everyone, including teachers. I believe if kids make false accusations such as these, the parents should be held accountable to their own family's choices. It is within their control, hopefully, but if they have disobedient kids, they must suffer the consequences of the choices as a family. If a child accuses, and it's found to be falsely, the family should pay stiff penalty in as many ways as possible. Why do we continue to encourage these accusations by having nothing in place to discourage the rough imaginations? I know of parents who are dealing with the same accusations from angry children. It doesn't just stop at teachers. It can run deeper and affect parents, too. Kids can make false claims to teachers and the parents could then potentially loose custody of their kids because of it.
How does it stop? Hold families accountable. Kids need to get the message that falsely accusing people, teachers or parents, bear life changing and dramatic results. Not just a minor discipline issue that is resolved by spending an afternoon in detention. Kids need to realize false accusations may cause their families to lose thier homes and lives, their futures, their parents. It's important to cut the source of these stories off completely, without encouraging abusers to come out of the woodwork. It's a fine line, but all who cause such grief should be sentenced to large fines and long jail time as a family.
What does it seem we have now? Nobody believes a teacher. Nobody believes a parent. Every child knows how to make up stories and have reactions they hoped for. It makes me sick.
Hope your week is free of make-believe accusations.
Randy B.
I am so sorry you had to go through an orderly of a student wrongly accusing you. I find it very sad that the teacher is always the last one to find out that they have been accused in many of these situations. In undergrad I had a whole class devoted to making sure we had insurance and possible scenarios that students may put us in. Working with children is a dangerous field when one truly thinks about it. A small lie can ruin a person's life. A coach at my high school was falsly accused and never lived down the accusation even after the student admitted she lied. I find it sad that in our field we are the last ones to be believed. I hope you never have to go through this again.
ReplyDeleteBlaire
Wow, absolutely crazy. But it does happen. I have heard horror stories from teachers at my school and throughout the county on things when students accused a teacher of doing something inappropriate and they actually did nothing. Recently, an incident occurred where it is "he said, she said". The student involved though has a horrible track record with for serious acts of violence or harassment from last year alone. So it is always sketchy. However, there have been serious issues in Georgia where teachers have abused special ed students and it was videotaped. It is sad that there is so much deception in school now. With students having cell phones, it is so difficult to appropriately discipline students because you could be recorded and then something brought against you.
ReplyDeleteYou've identified a topic that every teacher knows about and fears!! I'm sorry to hear that you personally had to go through the ordeal that you did but glad to see that it did not turn you off from the profession completely--which I think could easily happen!
ReplyDeleteYou are so true in asking how hard is it to escape the effects, even if the accusations are false. For the sub from Chicago that you referenced, it tarnishes a teachers name and reputation, usually beyond repair!
While we are (overly?) concerned with students/parents rights, it is a grave matter that our teachers are expected to carry the entire burden! I'm sure in your case, it would have been easier to apologize (for what?) to the prosecutor and unfortunately, this is sometimes the stance that our administrators and colleagues take. In your case, I'm glad that your perserverance was strong and that the wheel of justice prevailed!
Thanks for sharing, no doubt, a concern all too near and dear to you!!