Teacher Intimidation Antics Aren’t Acceptable in College
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In July 2006, I was chatting with a Western Alabama African American husband of a public school teacher who shared a story of how his wife had been the victim of teacher intimidation. This worried husband said that a student told his wife that if she disciplined him that his father would come to the school and shoot her.
The husband stated that his wife became emotionally frazzled, and he began to describe the high stress his wife underwent from this potential life threatening situation.
His African America wife comes across as a woman who holds strong convictions on helping students rise to their full potential. She confirmed that the student threat occurred, but she tried to minimize the seriousness of her stress. This teacher said that she chatted with other teachers who shared that this student had exploited this life threatening ploy in the past.
What was very disconcerting was that this teacher never revealed that the hellion student suffered any consequences for this clear case of teacher intimidation. As I recounted this story in light of the murders that have taken place in schools across the nation, I was concerned that if other teachers knew of this student’s intimidation tactics, why was he still in school?
As a college mathematics professor, I am a firm believer that you can discipline or teach but not do both in the college classroom if the students are to learn. When students attempt to exploit gang banger teacher intimidation antics that may have worked in high school in my classroom, they quickly find themselves asked to leave. These intimidator students also learn that I spent my early life growing between two public housing projects so gang banger antics only strengthen my resolve to help them undergo an acculturation to the decorum of a mainstream college student.
What intimidator students may find in colleges in general is that social promotion (teachers passing you to get you out of their classroom) is not something that college professors will tolerate. Hence, it behooves parents who are hoping their children are successful in college to see that they undergo a mainstream acculturation before entering college or intimidator students may find themselves flunking out of college in their freshman year. Thus parent might consider their financial losses in paying college tuition for students, hoping to brandish a hip hop gang banger persona that may be fine in the hood’ but tantamount to academic suicide on a college campus.
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