“I AM NOT A PUNCHING BAG. I Am a Human Being, With a Family.”

I recently had a student who was very violent. He would rip things off of the walls, throw computer equipment, flip tables over….the list is long. All the while continuing to teach and waiting for one of my administrators to arrive. I completed report after report of how desperately we needed support to prevent other children from being injured, and how I myself was bearing the brunt of injury.

The next year I sat in disbelief, bandaging up a colleague’s hand that was slammed in the door, wondering why all the documentation of events had not aided in getting this colleague or the child the proper supports required to prevent an injury like this. Two more of my colleagues are now on leave due to violence.

Thanks to all the cutbacks due to a lack of funding, students do not have a special program to be in that they so desperately need to be in. There are no additional supports to help the teachers who teach mainstream classes. I AM NOT A PUNCHING BAG. I am a human being, with a family, who is doing her very best to educate the future. With so few supports in our schools… well, I am very frightened for the future of education.

– ETT MEMBER, Ward 1