Tag Archive for ‘abuse’ at The Core Knowledge Blog

For the second time this week, a ghastly-sounding story of a teacher verbally abusing a five-year-old child. And this time, it’s on tape. The parents of an Indiana kindergartener sent the child to school with a tape recorder in his pocket after suspecting problems:

I’ve been more than nice to you all year long and you’ve been ignorant, selfish, self-absorbed, the whole thing! I’m done!” Indiana teacher Kristen Woodward says to Gabriel on the tape. She continues: “Something needs to be done because you are pathetic! If me saying these words to you hurt, I hope it does because you’re hurting everyone else around you.”

Gabriel can be heard crying on the tape. Over at Joanne Jacobs, commenter Barry Garelick asks a question that’s probably on a lot of parents’ minds after hearing about this and a similar tale earlier this week: “I wonder how prevalent such abuse is; could this be more widespread than it looks?”

A Port St. Lucie, Florida parent is threatening to sue after her son’s kindergarten teacher led his classmates to “vote him out of class.”

After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn’t like about Barton’s 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Melissa Barton. By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class.

Barton filed a complaint with the school resource officer, who investigated the matter, according to Port St. Lucie Department spokeswoman Michelle Steele, who said the teacher confirmed the incident took place. The state attorney’s office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed, Steele said. The district is investigating, not surprisingly.