Editorial: Teacher 'sick out' triggered too much turmoil

Posted 2/11/19

Kickemuit Middle School teachers and their union should not be congratulated for their divisive actions last week. Of course that’s what happened among the Facebook mob, as many parents posted …

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Editorial: Teacher 'sick out' triggered too much turmoil

Posted

Kickemuit Middle School teachers and their union should not be congratulated for their divisive actions last week. Of course that’s what happened among the Facebook mob, as many parents posted shout-outs of support, with variations of “it’s about time!” after almost all teachers called out sick on Friday.

There are clearly problems within the middle school. Students have been aggressive and at times violent, with some students and even teachers getting injured. These actions should never be tolerated within any setting, especially one with a large population of young people who need to feel safe and secure in order to learn properly and reach their highest potential. Teachers, too, need to feel safe and secure and respected, in order to teach effectively.

Yet the teacher “sick out” was nothing but a crass publicity stunt designed for mass impact (while conveniently giving themselves a three-day weekend). The stunt obviously worked. Media flocked to the scene, and talk radio shows lit up with callers on Friday.

The teachers, however, caused widespread disruption for their supposed partners in this community — administrators, families and children.

With no warning and caught totally unaware, school leaders had to close the school for a day, triggering confusion and anxiety for hundreds of families throughout these two towns. Parents learned of the closure at 10:30 the night before, forcing many to scramble for either child care or daytime activities, like a snow day without even the slightest warning in the forecast, and many others to wonder what rampant virus was ravaging the school population.

The sudden closure also impacts students, some of whom felt less safe than they had the day before — ‘If the teachers are too scared to come to school, then how can I be safe here?!’

And it riled up a much wider community, which now views Kickemuit as a school gone amuck, with violent young people roaming the halls and causing chaos.

Successful as it was at getting publicity, the teacher protest is too narrowly focused. It places all blame for student problems at the feet of the administration, and while school leaders clearly must do more to counteract these behaviors, the teacher protest totally ignores other responsible parties: parents, home environments and the debilitating influence of smart phones on this middle school population.

The problems at Kickemuit are much wider than a few rules and their enforcement. The crisis is deeper than one three-day weekend could ever solve.

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.