The story behind the student removal.

A guest post from a teacher . . .

There's been a lot of discussion about the young lady who was physically removed from her classroom by a police officer. I'm going to comment on this as a teacher who just yesterday had a student refuse to leave my classroom.

A preface to all of this:  I don't enjoy seeing anyone forcibly removed from a school environment and the level of force is questionable in these videos . . . but there is a story that leads to that point.

I teach in an urban school district. I regularly have students swear at me, kick tables, slam things and become completely insubordinate. The student who refused to leave my classroom was not supposed to have even come into my classroom that day. He was told to report to ISS. Instead, he knowingly and intentionally came into my classroom, pushing his way past me despite my repeated (calm) statements saying that he was not to enter my classroom. Administration was called....he was given multiple opportunities to cooperate and comply and he refused to leave the room. The warning was given that the police were about to be called.

Finally, when a larger male teacher came into the room, he left. What you are not seeing in that video are the multiple offenses that have led up to that moment....the teacher that is scared and has tried multiple times to reach that student and has been harassed and mistreated.

You are not seeing the other students in the room....some of which truly desire an education to be able to move out of the circumstances that they are currently in who have now lost minutes of their instructional time. That young lady is not a hero....she is an insubordinate student who made foolish choices that led to a physical removal.

Tomorrow I will again face a classroom of those students. As I go to bed tonight, I worry....will that young man again appear at my door. Will he escalate and harm me to push his way into the room? Will my classroom end up being a youtube video because of a strung-out kid who doesn't give a crap about his education and is ruining it for every other student around him.....

The heroes.....the heroes are the teachers that walk into those classrooms everyday. The heroes...the heroes are the administration that calmly offer solutions and choices to try and help students that couldn't care less. The heroes... the heroes are the police officers that put themselves in harm's way to protect the other students in the classroom. The heroes are the other kids in that classroom that look at the situation and say to themselves that despite their circumstances, they will choose to get an education and change their life....those are heroes.