Gymnasium Pupils Accused of Insulting Their Teacher
34October 17, 2012 by Aleksandra Łuczak
For the first time students will be responsible for the insult of their school teacher.
Eleven junior high school students will stand before the family court in Suwalki. Students were charged of six allegations: not responding to commands from the teacher, having their mobile phones turned on during lessons, and the use of vulgar words.
Parents are surprised at the accusations and bear a grudge against the school that the problem has not been resolved in school, but has been taken to court.
Disciplinary problems in Polish lower secondary schools (gymnasiums) are widely debated. Do you think the situation got so bad that parents and teachers are helpless and the only solution is to start legal action?
Have your say!
(This post has been prepared by Katarzyna Mietlińska)
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It’s common situation that junior high school students insults their teacher. In my opinon the youth of today is not so well-mannered like youth e.g. 10 years ago was. Parents mostly haven’t got enough time for their children because of work. I think that problems like this should be resolved by parents and tutor.They should punish these kids, but not go to the court. Social work might good resolution. These kids can do something good and by the way draw a conclusion from their bad behaviour.
Nowadays it’s very common that pupils in lower secondary schools have lack of good behaviour and are very rude and offensive to their teachers. Maybe it is caused by parents’ lack of time to keep an eye on their kids progresses or by bad influence of their peers.
But I think that if there appears any problem that kind schools should resolve them with the support of children’s parents.
The punishment should be a lesson for wrong doers that they would not do it again.
The Polish media often hear of similar cases when students insult their teachers and in some cases even their attack (the famous case of the basket). I think it’s a very serious matter. Teachers are often afraid of their students because they lack the legal possibilities to prevent this situation
I think that people who decided to start service as a worker of educational institution should realize the fact that they have to work with a very specific age group, with quite unformed personalities. Children never were saints.In all times and in all countries there were disciplinary problems in schools in varying degrees. Therefore, it seems to be foolish attempting to take legal proceedings against children by educational institutions and their employees.
This is a double edge case. We have not enough information to decide if there where taken all necessary action by the teacher to avoid delegating this case to the court. If the teacher called parents to the school, informed their about the problem and they did nothing- this is an justification of teacher’s decision. We all know, that in an average gymnasium there are many children that are acting rude and if the teacher has not got a strong personality it is hard to control them and to persuade to behave in correct way. Maybe in this case, children in gymnasium need a threat of the court, to behave correctly and to understand the need to change themselves.
In my opinion Polish Government should come back to the previous system of edication based on 8 years of primary school and 4 years of high school. Lower secondary schools gather students in the worst age. They want to performance themself, show that they are better. That is why they don’t have respect to teachers. I think that is a very serious problem. Teachers are affraid of students, they are helpless. They can’t shout, hit or threaten, but students can as this example showed.
Disrespectful and arogant behavior coming from teenagers is something completely common nowadays. The problem is that our society got so used to those extremes that at some point they stopped being controversial and became a standard. After years of ignoring the lack of discipline in our school system I really think it is not only the time but also an absolute necessity to take things to a higher level. If taking this case to court is going to make things better ,I will support that decsion.
I think that students nowdays are impolite. Their behavior is improper. Teachers must be really patient and have to tolerate each person in the class. If they do not, they are often being accused of the children’s parents. The problem is getting bigger and bigger. That is why ,this kind of a problem should have been resolved in the court, not at school, because like it was said in the article- teachers and parents are helpless. When students will be in the court, they realize how serious problem they have and I am sure that they will change their habits. They will feel really scary . In the end they will probably understand how badly they acted at school and such situations like using of vulgar words or not responding to commands from the teacher will not be repeated by them.
Teachers nowadays are in a very tough situation. On one hand they’re not only supposed to teach kids science and art, but also they’re taking part in rising them, teaching how to live in a society etc. Being a teacher comes with a great responsibility. If this teacher would have not reacted, his pupils (and I bet on it) would remain loud and rude by the rest of their gymnasium education. But he did – and now the parents are “surprised” and they’re bearing the grounds against the school. Eh…
There is a popular polish (or not only polish) proverb : what parents didn’t teach you – the school will teach you. School, not court. But the problem is that teachers have no power to bring up young people nowadays.
The rights of human goes to far, so teacher can’t simply appeal to pupil’s common sense in traditional, old fashioned way. They can’t even raise voice or use pointed words because poor child will complain to mother, and mother will complain to headmaster.
In that point I consider that what teachers did was correct. This is the time to change the proverb mentioned in the beginning: what parents didn’t teach you – court will teach you.
More and more often we hear about problems in junior high schools. I think it starded right after the change of education system, when polish goverment made gymnasiums. Why is that? In my opinion it’s because young adults between age of 13-15 don’t feel like children anymore, they think they are grown-ups now. Their hormones are starting to go crazy and their behalf is unallowable. There is no excuse for insulting the teacher or use vulgar language, no matter what. I think taking this case to court is the only solution, because what else can an adult do when 11 pupils attacs him?
Unfortunately this is quite common problem in schools all around the world . Probably thanks to
revolutionary methods like stresless educations. Which makes them think that they can do anything and they won’t get any punishment.
However i think it’s teacher job to educate children ( not only knowledge but also behavior). So in my estimation it’s exaggeration that teachers bring case to court becouse his/her students didn’t turn off mobiles and use vulgar words from time to time. Or maybe it’s to late for me and i’m also one of this improper upbringed children…
What’s more in my opinion tutor should sue his students only in final situation (when he/she can deal with them) e. g. if he is threaten, attacked or his property destroyed on purpose. ( or it can’t be resolved by school and parents)
Nowadays, students at gymnasiums, or even in high schools, are really impolite. They have no limits in their behaviour. Probably they don’t know how to act in class. That’s sad, because when I was at age of 11-16, I didn’t even think about insulting my teachers. Today, we hear about millions of situations that students are ‘bullying’ their teachers. If there’s no way to fix it in school, by headmaster or some psychologists, then I think starting a legal action is a good idea.
Problem with insulting teachers became more and more popular these days. Teenagers in gymnasium are getting very impolite and for teachers it is very hard to make them behave. Nowadays even a talk with their parents is not working like it used to. I think that school did the right thing because probably old fashioned ways did not work and the parents should not be surprised.
In my opinion, each party is responsible for that situation. Teachers are usually unable to interest students enough. I think that classes should be more discplined. Unfortunately, respect for teachers has been forgotten long ago. Students know that they are unpunished. They do not suffer consequences of behaviour. As you can see, only external intervention gives results. Truly, parents think that their child is the most polite child in the world so they always blame teachers. On the other hand teachers usually do not want to listen to the problem. They prefer remain silent because “all children behave in the same way”- they say. I am glad that at least one teacher found the courage to go one step further.
I dont know the case really well, but in my opinion the time of lower secondary school is the „stupid age“. Teenagers feels as if they were adult, but unfortunately they don’t know how to really be adoult. They behaviour often is really reprehensible. Very often during some walk you can meet such a young adults, and what they are saying, and the way they say it is terrifying. So I can believe that in yhis case they have been so cruel for the teacher, that resolving it at school was not enough.Maybe it will be a warning for other people in thair age. Maybe they will understand that if you want to be adult, you also have to be responsible for your words and acts. We can’t make from really smart young people duffers. They understand their acts so they should also understand what are they punished for. I hope that this case will be shown as an example to avoid situations like that.
I agree with an opinion, that such problems occur as a result of the stressless parenting and education. Nowadays, parents think that an unacceptable conduct of their children is related to the puberty and their crazy hormones. They forgot that these aren’t the only reasons. They cannot just connive at their bad behaviour. Parents have a duty to preach their children , enlarge their knowledge , make them adaptable to the society. If they haven’t got enough time to do this, at school children start to behave exactly like at home and they think that there wouldn’t be any consequences of it. Of course, this problem should be firstly resolved in school, but when it underperform, I believe that starting legal action is a good solution.
Parents should’t be shocked but disappointed and feel ashamed of what their children have done. It is every parent duty to bring up their kids for honest and respectful people. This case and many similar show that parents blame school for such accidents when actually it’s only their fault! Parents thing that school will raise children. Nothing more deceitful. School and teachers will only HELP, but they are not going to make it on their own.
My parents often tell me some stories from their past, when they were kids and went to school . They always say that teachers were stern and strict, so every student had a lot of respect for every older person. When I was in junior high school, I saw some situations, which were rude to teachers, but there was always a way to hold them back, by some school methods. Nowadays there’s plenty of cases, where children have no respect to their parents, teachers etc.
In my opinion, the legal action is a good idea, because maybe when kids see, how serious the situation is, they’ll stop acting like that and they’ll be an example for every ohter child.
Nowadays, students are so disrespectful to their teachers. They have no limits in disturbing, or even insulting older people. In my opinion, when teachers and school psychologists are helpless, a legal action is a good idea. Students of junior high school will see, that situation is serious, and this case will become an example of treating bad behaviour.
In my opinion these days parents don’t interest what their children are doing at school and how they behave. For the young ones it is comfortable because they only have lowered behaviour grade or this kind of punishment, but they can misbehave over and over. Parents have a conviction that if their children is at school all they do is the problem of theachers, but its still their child and still they should care how they behave and treat other people. On the other hand teachers are mostly afraid of calling parent, and it leads to bad behaviour of child.
I think that nowadays teachers and parents do not have students under control, they are increasingly helpless. Students think that they can do anything what they want and will not bear any responsibility and any consequences in the near future. Pupils consider themselves to be untouchable and they feel completely unpunished.
Ok in my opinion, the teacher did the right thing. Of course the court is not a place to teach young people how to behave and live in the society . The court should protect the law and the most common rights that are written in the Polish constitution and statutes. Some of those rights were violated by those children. The best way to resolve this situation would be an obligatory psychologist session for all of them, not only students but teachers and other school employees also. There are many cases when teachers OR students are terrorized by the other side, but this is the first one I hear about that ended up in a court. The teacher felt so helpless that she thought that this is the only way to protect herself from the harassment, some might disagree but if nothing else works you need to think of something that might help, and that what that teacher thought.
I believe that almost every quarell can be solved without taking legal actions. However, in my opinion the problem is not how to penalize the students for such a behavior, but we have to find out what happened that they started to behave this way. Should parents be so suprised? They see their children in every day life. How it happened that they didn’t realize that their own child has so many anger inside, that he/ she must relieve it that way?I wouldn’t blame the kids so much. I think parents are also quite responsible for the situation. Maybe they should spend a little bit more time with their kids and then maybe there wouldn’t be such situations. Sometimes simple talk is enough to help them deal with the teenage anger.
I also agree that the teacher decision was not only justified but also right. As one of the previous comments say “Kids were never saint”. Although it is true still such situations never happened in the old days (meaning like 15 years ago). Why? Teachers were not different. The difference is in the kids and their parents. Today’s kids tend to think that they are almighty and don’t have to listen to anyone. Although it was the same before but today it is forbiden to even slap a child when in many cases such a punishment is the best possible. What happens then? How does such a kid feel? I did something wrong or I got something I shouldn’t have gotten and I didn’t even got punished for that. Others kid see that so they’ll also want to try it out. In the end we wake up in a society where teenagers don’t respect or fear anyone. Does it really supprise anyone then that such situations like described above happen? Me not
I have to say that I am really glad to hear that those kids’ case will be judged by court. Behaviour like this makes me sick – it’s reprehesible and unacceptable. It’s not only about how parents grow their children. It’a also about the idea of polish gymnasiums. After graduating from primary school kids start learning in lower secondary school. They move on to the next level what makes them feel like they are much more grown-up and independent. That results in major change of their behaviour – behaviour that was not common when gymnasiums did not exist. It is necessary to “punish” children behaving like this because this can lead to huge disorder in their value ladder and whole adolescence. Not only teachers, but also adults generally should react to such situations, while parents should raise their kids with greater care.
Yes, the lack of discipline is a growing problem in polish educational system. The teenagers due to being hormonsl try to see what they can do and push the border of good behavior . Theachers should have mere rightss to punish the misbehaving student so he won’t go wild in the class and give the bad example to the rest
Ten years agao such behavior in a class was simply inacceptable . Of course there were some problematic individuals but theose were the real minority of the school population.
Yes, the lack of discipline is a growing problem in polish educational system. The teenagers due to being hormonal are trying to see what they can do and push the border of good behavior . Teachers should have more rights to punish the misbehaving student so they won’t go wild in the class and give the bad example to the rest.
Ten years ago such behavior in a class was simply inacceptable . Of course there were some problematic individuals but those were the minority of the school population.
But their isn’t only the particular student fault, also paters are to blame. The lack of time to properly raise the child result in a lack of discipline and respect for the teachers and adults in all. Also pushing responsibility onto school do not help and result in hurting the children in such crucial age of development.
All these allegations mentioned above are well-known in polish gymnasiums. The problem is that these child are not aware of the damages they are causing themselves and to other students. The grounds of this reprehensible behavior have their origin in primary school or what is getting mostly common, nowadays from peers. In my opinion, Im glad these kids are going to be sentenced in the court. The lack of discipline is very common and it should be
immediately changed.
In my opinion such cases should have their final in court. Maybe this will force parents to teach their children how to behave properly and show pupils that they will not stay unpunished. I think that nowadays people have less respect to each other, not only children.
In my opinion when children misbehave they should fist of all be sent to the principals office, and then the her or she should decide to suspend the students or not. Lets not forget that they are teenagers, most of us haven’t listened to our teacher and kept our phones on at least once or twice during junior high school. Responding in vulgar words should be the main issue. They should be punished and do community service, but haven’t done anything that awful to face a judge in court.
I agree with anna b. In these days Youth is very violent. They don’t listen to anybody. They don’t have any authorities. Only punishment can only teach them something. And it has to be a punishment that they will remember for a very long time.
I think that’s the only way to solve this problem. Neither parents nor teachers are able to do anything about it. It has to be drastically and effectively.
In my opinion the disciplinary problems would not have occurred if the lower secondary schools had not existed. The whole idea of abandoning the traditional 8-year long primary school was wrong – we now have gimnasiums which are simply a mix of different children from different backgrounds. The news of disciplinary problems is not unexpected because the students want to attract attention and stand out. Unfortunately, they are also rapidly losing respect for the teachers, which leads to such situations. Some action should be taken to improve this, otherwise it will be dangerous to teach in such schools.
That’s true that nowadays students, especially those in gymnasium are very arogant and disrespectful. They think that they can do anything and no limitations are imposed on them. But I think that problems like that should be resolved by parents and tutor rather than taken to the court. It seems that a social work would be a good punishment as it is a high possibility that by doing this they will draw a conclusion from their misbehaviour.