Student Objectification Report

I have spent nearly three years walking the halls of Tallassee High School as both an intern and a full – time teacher. I have been so proud to teach at THS. I have grieved leaving this profession because being a teacher has truly been my joy and my honor. I have cried knowing I will miss my students dearly – the 200+ lives I have had the pleasure to get to know over my time here. But I have also been burdened not knowing who will advocate for them in my absence. And so this letter is my last advocacy for those students who are hurting, those who feel overlooked, and those who are vulnerable. Because I love this school, this community, and my students so much, I feel compelled to share my concerns. All of these concerns come out of a love for

THS and our students but also out of a desire for more out of THS for our students!

I see a repeated refusal to condemn bullying and verbal abuse.
I am not saying that I believe anyone has set out to be unjust in their handlings of bullying, but what I am saying is that we have allowed an environment to cultivate in which some students do not feel safe. I have seen firsthand the effects of bullying on my students’ self-worth, confidence, and drive for life. I have witnessed students be dismissed in their claims against other students. One student who has been bullied in our schools for several years told me that he did not believe anyone would do anything about it. And I have to say I now agree with him. In just this last semester, I reported three instances of bullying. These were not one-time occurrences but daily ridicule and harassment: two brothers for calling another student a “fat***” and “bastard” and making other cruel comments in the hallway between classes everyday, another for calling a female classmate a “slut” during first period every morning, and yet another for verbally and sexually harassing two classmates both in school and online. Only one of these students received a formal punishment, and that punishment was just one day of ISS. The most discipline the others received were talks in the office. Allowing bullying and verbal abuse to go unchecked is, at best, worsening the victims’ quality of life and, at worst, causing them to have thoughts of suicide. We cannot turn a blind eye to these incidents as our students suffer. A talk is not good enough; saying, “don’t bully” is not good enough. Students have to understand that this behavior will not be tolerated.

I see discrimination against African-American students.
I've heard the following statements (and others like them) about our students of color from teachers and administrators several times over the past few years:

“Yeah, we know he's going to end up in jail.”
“If they have babies, it's just job security for special education.”
“We are looking for you to send these kids to the office.”
“You can’t really expect much out of that one.”
“I'm just dealing with the blacks all day. They can’t behave.”
“Is this a black kid?” (in an IEP meeting)

I know that dealing with high school students can be exhausting and frustrating. I know that the situations and pressures we deal with can so easily cause us to say things we do not mean. I know that some of these comments were made in jest rather than in true prejudice. Knowing these things, I held my tongue on so many days when I wanted to say something. I tried to give the benefit of the doubt. However, as I reflected over my time at THS, I realized these types of comments are widespread and constant. I am not saying that I believe any of our teachers set out in their heart to be cruel to a segment of our student body, but what I am saying is that when we do not fight back these attitudes, we are in the wrong and we hurting our students.

I see African-American and/or impoverished students receive harsher punishments.
We cannot label kids as "bad kids" and still expect to serve and educate them at the highest level. By and large at THS, these students labeled as "bad kids" and those that, therefore, receive harsher punishments are those who are African American and/or impoverished and/or whose parents are not involved at the school.
For example...
One white student was accused of bullying by two students, a teacher, and a parent, but only received a "talking to" in the office. An African-American student gets sent to ISS for the rest of the year for videoing a fight.

I know these two situations are apples and oranges, but it just seems that African-American students get harsher punishments for what in my mind are lesser transgressions. I say lesser because wrongdoings like videos of fights will be forgotten about, but the students who are bullied and verbally abused will live with ramifications of such treatment for the rest of their lives. I understand that all of these actions are wrong and/or outlined in our student handbook. However, what I do not understand is the vast difference in punishments.

I believe it is crucially important to look beyond the surface in all of these situations. For this reason, I almost always ask for a reason when any of my students get in trouble. When I hear what's going on in their hearts, I am bent towards compassion. This does not mean that I do not punish the child for their actions, but it does mean that to the best of my abilities, I try to make the punishment match the offense AND try to address the underlying issues affecting the student in question. 

I see a lack of sound instruction from our teachers and a lack of accountability from our administrators.
On so many days, so many of my students come to me saying that they did not learn anything in their other classes that day, or they tell me that there are some classes in which they are never expected to work.

I do not know how true these statements are across the board, but I do know that I have felt like I am fighting a losing battle in my classroom trying to improve my students’ work ethic and teach them from bell to bell. I have felt alone in my efforts to hold students to high academic standards. Furthermore, I do not think that it is the rigor and quantity of work that is lacking at THS but also the quality of teaching. Does every teacher at our school teach in a way that is conducive to our students learning? Can we say for certain that our students are learning and retaining what they are being taught? Are our students performing well? When I ask these questions to myself, I am compelled to act on my conclusions. There is always more work to be done or some way to get better. I want to be clear that I am not speaking to a particular style of teaching or running a classroom but rather just to the overall quality of that style. During my first year when I was worried about my performance, several teachers told me, “You’re fine. They know who is doing their job.” And that was comforting; I knew I was working as hard as I possibly could. However, I became disheartened when I saw that there was seemingly no accountability for those teachers who were not providing a good education to our

students.

I see decisions made at the expense of those most vulnerable in our school.
This last concern really encompasses much of the above frustrations I have felt as a teacher at THS, but it also goes so much deeper. I have witnessed and been on the hurting side of these decisions. I cannot say I know the full rationale behind them, but what I can say is that if often feels like they are made based on what would be the most convenient or require the least amount of work for the person making the decision rather than on what is best for our students. These types of decisions include the following:

Placing 10+ students with IEPs in the same class
Scheduling low – level math classes for the afternoon
Placing many students with known discipline problems in the same class
Asking aides to leave their assigned classrooms to be substitutes
Allowing case managers to have 30+ students on their caseload
I know that there are significant financial factors that influence these decisions. I know that I have never been responsible for creating schedules and that I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to try to generate the best possible scenario for every student. However, I am fully confident that each of these choices has directly affected my students’ chance to receive a quality education.

I respect my students before I ever expect them to respect me. I listen to them showing them as much grace and compassion as possible. I pray for them. I ask for advice from other educators. I try to meet as many of their needs as I can in the classroom. I do not hold past aggressions against them. And I do all of this while holding fast to appropriate boundaries, while maintaining classroom discipline, while applying consequences, and while trying to help them understand the error of their ways in a way that truly helps them get better. I have learned that grace and discipline go together in a way far beyond my understanding. In a conversation with Mr. Coker recently, he made a comment about how he "knows my concern comes from a good heart." But it's not a good heart. It's a redeemed heart. Mine is a heart that understands the depth of my own transgressions and the weight of grace that has been applied to them. And a heart that then tries to treat everyone with whom I come in contact with such love and grace. I truly believe everything we could possibly want for THS can be achieved in the way we treat our students and the environment we create for them.

Sincerely,