Slap Happy


With so much violence in schools these days, it's not too surprising to hear about teachers being hit or worse. I knew of teachers who would get hit when they tried to stop a fight or when a student got mad and hit them, or worse, when a parent did the hitting. It's sad to say that these things do happen. 

Many years ago, I was working in a daycare center. I needed the money, and it was all that was available at the time. I definitely do not recommend working in a daycare. You are basically a babysitter, and the money is always very low. But sometimes you just got to do what you can do to survive. This daycare was not the best but there were some pretty nice people who worked there. One of them was an older lady who had worked there forever. She was the go-to when you had a question or a problem. And most of the kids just loved her. 

But there was one kid who had a problem with authority and with doing the right thing. It might be bad to say this, but this kid was not very likable. He was downright mean. One day he had been giving this lady a very hard time. She had tried everything to help him and refocus his behavior, but nothing worked. At one point, she told him that it was time to sit down for quiet time. He laughed at her and continued to run around. She approached him and that's when he balled up his fist and punched her right in the face. We all heard it, and it was a hard punch. She was more surprised at the moment than hurt. But she did not hit him back. She walked away. Now, I'm not saying that she should have hit him back, I'm just saying that it was rough and that instinctually, you would want to fight back. 

She had a black eye and bruising for about a week. The boy was thrown out of the daycare. There was zero tolerance for hitting a teacher, no matter how little you were. And this boy had a pretty long rap sheet already. We teachers were happy with the director for throwing him out. 

What are your thoughts on this? Should a child be thrown out for hitting a teacher? What would you have done? 

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