A Coppin Academy teacher attacked by a parent had to call on her union for legal help to obtain a protective order after the Baltimore City School System refused to help.
“I?ve not had any assistance in any way” from the school system, biology teacher Sandra Herrera told The Examiner. “I didn?t think it bothered me that day. … Now I am a little bit leery.”
Distressed, Herrera turned to the city teachers union, which advised her to get a protective order against the parent.
“The reason that the union assigned me to represent Miss Herrera is the school system is doing nothing to protect teachers who are being attacked,” said Keith Zimmerman, a private practice lawyer who serves as counsel to the teacher?s union.
If principals aren?t getting the message, superintendents are concerned about the problems of violence in schools, said State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick through a spokeswoman.
“If the teacher feels he or she is in danger, and the principal is not correctly addressing the situation, they should go directly to their superintendent,” she said.
Grasmick and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-District 7, are convening a school violence summit June 3 to discuss the problems and possible solutions, but many teachers have told The Examiner they need relief now.
The Examiner reported earlier this month in a five-part series that about 1,500 suspensions or expulsions were issued for assaults on teachers in the Baltimore region. Some of those teachers suffer post traumatic stress symptoms and have been reprimanded by their principals after being attacked, The Examiner reported.
Zimmerman secured a six-month peace order Friday morning against Sherry Shields, mother of Coppin student Shaun Shields. The peace order bars Shields from coming near Herrera at work or at the teacher?s home.
Herrera also is pressing criminal charges related to the assault, Zimmerman said.
Shaun has not been allowed to return to Herrera?s classroom, though the teacher said she is still responsible for assigning work to the student.
Shortly before the April 29 attack, Herrera said she had refused to interrupt her lesson on photosynthesis to provide Shaun with a weeks? worth of makeup assignments.
The student then left the classroom and called her mother on a cell phone; school policy prohibits the use of cell phones but is rarely enforced, Herrera said.
Shields arrived in class unannounced and began shuffling papers on her desk, demanding the assignments, Herrera said. When she gave her the assignments, the teacher said Shields shoved her to the ground, yelled profanities and stood over Herrera so the teacher couldn?t get up.
Workers in a nearby athletic office called campus police.
