A Baltimore middle school teacher who resigned two weeks ago after twice being physically assaulted by students learned Friday that the city school system is now moving to pull her state certification.
“Teaching in a city school is the job I signed up for, and it?s not my intention to skip out before the end of the year,” said Waverly Elementary/Middle School art teacher Julia Gumminger. “But I got into this to teach, not to fear for my safety.”
Gumminger said she?s been thrown against walls by eighth-grade boys four times since November and threatened with further bodily harm. She said she?s received little support from school or administration officials.
The 26-year-old earned a bachelor?s degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a master?s degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She started teaching through Baltimore City?s residency program last year, and in December completed her certification coursework at Johns Hopkins. In November, she said she was thrown against a wall by a student she told to report to the principal?s office. After a two-day suspension, the student was right back in her class ? a source of continual frustration for city teachers.
At a Feb. 27 school board meeting, Baltimore Teachers Union president Marietta English testified to school commissioners that “the 8,000 teachers and paraprofessionals in the system have faced numerous assaults, only to have the student return back to class.”
Teachers have said principals and administrators limit the number of suspensions to prevent schools from being listed as “persistently dangerous,” but students begin to feel they can get away with anything.
In January, after sending another student to the principal?s office for cutting class, Gumminger said she was thrown against a wall three times by the boy after the principal released him from her office at dismissal. That student was suspended for 45 days, Gumminger said. After initially seeking a transfer to another school, which she was told was impossible, she decided to look for other employment.
The school told her they are asking the state Department of Education to suspend her certification because she is breaking her contract.
Gumminger will be notified of an opportunity to appeal the suspension of her certification at a school board meeting, union spokesman David Barney said.
“I lived in this neighborhood for a year before I started teaching and I wanted to be here,” Gumminger said. “… But [now] I?m too afraid. I have students wait by my car and threaten to hurt me.”
