Teacher’s solution to problem? Cut it off
How many of us play with our hair? Twirl it around our finger, muss it, fuss with it, gather it up and let it fall, shake our heads just enough to set the beads clicking? Yeah, that’s right. We do it. A lot. And we’re mothers. We’re grown ups! Can you imagine how hard it is for a first grader to stop playing with her beautiful, braided hair?
Well, when Lamya Cammon didn’t stop twirling a braid in her fingers, her teacher called her to the front of the class and cut that braid right off her head. In front of everybody.
ABC 12News in Wisconsin has the story: “Teacher cuts off Girl’s Braid in Front of Class”.
The teacher was fined $175 for ‘disorderly conduct’ and apologized to the girl’s mother. According to the article, the mother got the apology, and an excuse: “But I was frustrated”, the teacher said.
Frustrated? When someone cuts in front of you in the grocery line, do you punch them? What is this teacher going to do with the kid who just can’t sit still? Duct tape him to the wall? How about the kid who won’t stop whispering? Or any of the hundreds of fidgety, wiggly, noisy things that first graders do?
I mean, come on. Send her to the office if her hair is too distracting. Ask her to sit in the hall until she can concentrate on the lessons and not her hair. But cut it off? And the class laughed at her. Way to make education a rewarding experience, Ms. Teacher.
I won’t tell you to get in touch with the school and let them know that this sort of conduct is unacceptable, but if you wanted to call Congress Elementary or write them a letter, I think you can find all you need here. And since the article I’m reading doesn’t mention the teacher by name, I’m just going to tell you that the little girl, Lamya Cammon, is in first grade. And the ‘frustrated’ teacher is still working in the school.
And that her teacher publicly humiliated the littler girl — and made her cry in front of her whole class.
7 Comments
That is so sad for that little girl. And if I were her mom, I’d be seeing red and have that teacher disciplined and shipped out.
I’m so furious right now. And that news article where the union blamed it on funding cuts?!? When crap like this goes on, it’s just like giving candy to proponents of banning public education altogether. That teacher needs to find another profession.
OK, the teacher was stupid, but asking people to write a letter to the school? Those poor people having to deal with all the angry hate-mail had nothing to do with the incident. Stuff like this happens every day outside school walls — kids do it to other kids, but they don’t get hate mail… Just sayin’… Give the OTHER people who work at that school a break.
You know, Anna, usually I would agree with you that the school should be left to handle it… but having just dealt with a horrible situation against someone who had all the power and was holding hostage something I really needed, maybe I’m just a little sensitive about what this girl and her mother are going through. The school is rated 2 out of 10 on the site I linked to… and the brief info I gathered about this incident just left me feeling cold. “I just got frustrated”? Why is she still teaching? She needs a vacation. She needs a week’s worth of sleep. She needs to step away from her job for a while and ask why she’s a teacher in the first place.
It’s not acceptable. It’s just not. If nothing else, letters to the school will let that little girl know that some people in this world do care about her, and are on her side.
April, it’s pretty depressing, huh.
I hope that kid shakes it off. I wasn’t the kind of kid who could bounce back from something like that.
butrflymom, I hear you. So unfair. So mean and kinda out of control, really.
How will the little girl know anything about the letters sent to the school? I just think the action of writing letters to the school is mis-spent energy. It was a horrible, despicable thing to do, and I agree that the teacher should be doing all of those things (and my guess is, being a teacher myself, she will have plenty of time to think REAL soon). It is unacceptable, but sending a million letters full of vitriol and hate does nothing positive for the situation.