COMMENTARY | Students are supposed to live up to rules and standards of their school districts while teachers aren’t. A substitute teacher in Mustang, Oklahoma, proved this exact theory recently.
A freshman at the local high school snapped a picture of the snoozing sub with their cell phone. Doesn’t seem like a problem right? It is twofold. First students aren’t supposed to have their cell phones turned on during class time. Rather than giving the said student detention or taking the phone away and calling their parents, the school suspended the student.
The student probably wouldn’t have been caught taking the picture if they wouldn’t have put it up on a social network site like Facebook. The sleeper got off scot-free for playing possum in class while the student was punished for taking action.
That incident leads to the next reason why this student shouldn’t be suspended for their actions. In Kansas, Governor Brownback wants to post teacher evaluations on public websites. However, Kansas lawmakers disagree with the governor. While I may not agree with everything lawmakers do, Brownback may be onto something after the incident with the substitute teacher and the Mustang high school student.
This is one of the reasons students aren’t learning as much as they should be in classes. Even President Obama wants teachers to be held responsible for what the kids are learning in the outline he prepared for his last State of the Union Speech. He stated, “Attract, prepare, support, and reward great teachers to help students learn.” The substitute teachers actions doesn’t help those who teach full-time. Nor does it help improving the image of teaching staff across the country when those who do the minimal work get away with sleeping on the job.
The substitute proved exactly what Governor Brownback and President Obama are getting to with their proposed legislative acts. The substitute must have slept through the president’s SOTU address as well. Why shouldn’t teachers be held to standards and accountable for their actions?
Even with the incident being investigated by the Mustang School District, the actions as of this time aren’t good enough. The reason being the student is missing classes while the substitute goes on being in classrooms with kids while the regular teacher is out.