[Editor's note: Señorita in the City is the pseudonym of a second-year teacher in a high school in Manhattan. She blogs at Señorita in the City where this post originally appeared.]
One of the many hats a teacher wears is that of “mandated reporter.” The law says if I suspect or am told by a student that they are being abused, do not feel safe, are planning on inflicting harm on themselves or someone else, that I must report this immediately to the higher ups who will then further investigate. Before I started working I went through a mandated reporter crash course. We read scenarios aloud discussing whether or not we would report the situation and the steps we would take in handling different things we may be faced with, you know, good preparation for the “real world.” Recently I was presented with a situation, and yes, I stepped up to fulfill my duty. Well, to the best of my ability anyway.
A student I’ve had for over a year informed me that another student was planning on switching schools.
“Oh really?” I asked, surprised that this student would leave so late in the year.
“He got jumped on Friday, that’s why,” the student replied.
I asked her if she knew what had happened or who was involved, she paused for a second and then wrote a name on a piece of paper.
“Seriously?” I asked her. I had taught both students the previous year, and was surprised that something like this would happen.
She explained that the victim in this altercation was planning on getting a group of boys together for revenge. She then added, “People are too scared to tell who did it, please do something.”
The combination of her asking for help and informing me of plans for future fighting required me to take some sort of action. I followed what my school calls the “ladder of referral” and spoke to a dean. I was told to get written statements from students who had seen what had gone down. While the girl who knew of the fight wrote a statement, no one who was actually a witness would admit anything on paper. Nobody wants to be a snitch.
There is no direction in the ladder of referral for such an event, so my job here is done. I am fully aware that some of my students will fight in a few weeks and it doesn’t seem like there is anything I can do, unless of course I too show up at the handball courts.
UPDATE:
Nothing ever came from my personal efforts of reporting the student that jumped another student. But just as one can count on teenage awkwardness, one can count on repeat offenders. Not a week later the same student was seen beating up freshmen in the park and stealing their iPods. Fortunately a girl saw the incident and reported it to the deans. The boy received five days suspension. So my efforts, though seemingly in vain in the beginning, ended up helping in the end.
1 Comment:
1 Ms. Flecha
· Nov 15, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I had two instances where a student’s writing was vague but seemed to indicate some kind of abuse and even self-mutilation, but when I further discussed it with them to try and determine what they were describing, it turned out to be nothing — just poor writing and lack of vocabulary (English is their second language). But it was very scary initially because there’s this feeling of “is this serious??” and immediately wondering what to do next.