Rochester, NY teacher gets suspended for washing students mouth out with soap

[Glaucus]

Yeah, sure, in this particular case it's no big deal. But if you allow this kind of treatment other teachers will only take it further. Eventually you'll have cases where kids will get injured. It's hard to enforce a rule where it's okay to use only a drop of soap, and no more. It's either all or nothing. If you allow her to use one drop, what happens when the next teacher decides to empty the entire soap dispenser in a kids mouth? It's a slippery slope, best to stay off it completely.

  - Mike

[Glaucus]

Oh come on Mike, isn't that a little alarmist? Parents who spank for instance don't suddenly beat their children to death. Everyone knows there's a line you can't cross, and one drop of liquid soap in the mouth of some loudmouthed f*ckwit assh*le student isn't crossing it, IMO.

Ah, but we do see some parents bashing the crap out of their kids. It's a very hard line to draw. I never said that all teachers who use a drop of soap will go overboard, just that not all teachers will realize where the line is. And what happens if the kid continues to swear, do we escalate to two drops, then three? Same goes with parents and corporal punishment. Many of those who cause severe bodily harm to kids don't seem to understand why what they're doing is so bad.

Also, this form of punishment is rahter stupid. How do we know the kid doesn't have ADHD? That's not the right way to handle such a case. What if the kid is abused or neglected at home? This sort of treatment only re-enforces another negative self image for the kid. These kinds of treatments should be considered as nothing more then a quick fix with short term results. It's pretty much a guarantee that the kid will swear again.

I still believe that positive re-enforcement is the answer.

  - Mike

[Glaucus]

Reading some of your replies, some of you guys act as if the kid attempted to kill a fellow student! I remember in grade school we'd use nasty words all the time. None of us got soap in our mouths, and hey, we didn't turn out to be mass murderers or anything.

  - Mike