Don?t tell HollyMyers that city school teachers are the only ones who have to fear students threatening and attacking them in the classroom.
Three weeks ago, Myers, 29, was one of three Anne Arundel County teachers who had to control an unruly 16-year-old student who was being sent to Myers? class after having behavioral problems.
“He slammed a door in one teacher?s face, pushed another and cussed all three of us out,” said Myers, who teaches English at Old Mill High School in Millersville. Little was done by the administration, she says.
“It?s difficult to teach when all you?re doing is managing that kind of behavior.”
Old Mill Principal George Kispert did not return several Examiner calls by press time.
Threats, bad attitudes and a lack of respect for teachers and school staff have proliferated among students, even those in honors and advanced classes, Myers said.
“The majority of what I?ve experienced has been a lot of threatening and intimidating. It?s not always as extreme as punching ? it?s the physical body threats,” she said, explaining how taller students bully her by “puffing out” their chests.
Leaders of the pack
There were more than 900 suspensions at suburban schools in the Baltimore region for students attacking teachers last school year ? about 31 students per 10,000, according to the State Department of Education.
Baltimore County schools topped the list with nearly 500 suspensions, Anne Arundel reported 209, Howard had 96, Harford had 68 and Carroll had the fewest with 51.
“We do encourage teachers who have been assaulted to file a police report,” said Cheryl Bost, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County. She said the school system has been responsive in punishing students but could not provide specific incidents to support her claim.
The only incident Bost could recall happened a few years ago, when a high school teacher had her cheekbone broken after being struck by students rushing to the scene of a fight. In this case, the teacher couldn?t identify the perpetrators, so the students went unpunished.
“I was amazed,” said Tim Mennuti, president of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County, when learning of his county?s 209 incidents. “Obviously the school system has not shared this information with us. The public has absolutely no idea what?s going on in the schools.”
Many PTA presidents, such as Anita Owens of the Anne Arundel County Council of PTAs, say they were also unaware of such a high number of assaults on teachers.
“I didn?t know there were that many,” she said. “I didn?t think they made that known.”
?It?s just not acceptable?
“I think we have to teach kids to respect teachers,” Owens said, “and that it?s just not acceptable to do anyone bodily harm.”
Just as students should feel safe, she says, teachers must also feel safe.
“After watching what happened in Baltimore City ? it?s not funny, and it?s not a joke,” Owens said, referring to the April beating of Jolita Berry, an art teacher at Reginald F. Lewis High School in Northeast Baltimore who filed second-degree assault charges against a student after a video of the attack caught national attention. “I hope nothing like that happens down here in Anne Arundel County.”
But it already has. Last May, Rossanna Snellings, 33, attempted to protect a life and ended up taking a beating from two teenagers.
Snellings, a Spanish teacher at North County High School in Glen Burnie, was only minutes from the end of her day when a fight broke out between two female students, one of whom was six months pregnant.
After watching the girls lunge at each other, throw punches and pull hair, Snellings thought it necessary to intervene.
“At that moment, I wasn?t thinking of me, I was thinking of the baby,” she said.
In the process, she was violently struck at least three times on the right side of her torso, causing prolonged pain and swelling to a joint that has hindered her ability to walk.
She undergoes physical therapy three times a week after her school day ends at Crofton Elementary, where she now teaches fourth grade.
“I?m retraining myself to walk again,” said Snellings, who, for a time after the fight, needed a walker. Her right side remains weak, and she needs assistance putting on her shoes.
She is still unsure of what sparked the fight, which had followed a belated Cinco de Mayo celebration.
The teens involved were suspended, Snellings said, but she said she didn?t receive much support from the administration or police. The girls were found negligent of disrupting school operations but not assault, leaving her disheartened.
“They should take more precautions and have more consequences,” North County High senior Ashlie Bowers, 17, said of students who attack teachers. “They just suspend [students]. That?s what they want. It doesn?t make any sense.”
Principal Frank Drazan said teachers at the school, especially smaller female teachers, are advised not to get between students to break up fights but instead seek help from other teachers.
“I wouldn?t say the students attacked Ms. Snellings,” Drazan said. “She physically inserted herself into the fight.”
Snellings said she yelled for them to stop and told students to get help.
“They both continued to throw punches after I intervened,” she said. “I don?t think it was accidental. They knew what they were doing.”
Craig Cummings, the Howard County School System?s hearing officer for extended suspensions, said the vast majority of assaults on teachers happen while teachers attempt to break up fights.
“We?ve had some instances where a student had a conflict with a teacher and ended up shoving the teacher,” he said. “We?ve had very few instances where students have attacked teachers with malice in mind.”
Ann DeLacy, president of the Howard County Education Association, who taught for more than 30 years, said a female middle school student threatened her with violence a number of years ago.
Police were called, and the student was suspended. But she said administrators at her school ? Owen Brown Middle School, now Cradlerock School ? were slow to respond.
“You?re dealing with kids,” DeLacy said, “but they can have big bodies in some cases.”
