Op-Ed: Pasadena Schools Over-React to Forehead-Tapping Incident

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School officials are investigating a case of a substitute teacher who allegedly scolded a student in a manner that the district considers to be inappropriate. The police were called and a complaint was filed with L.A. child services authorities.

What was this heinous crime that warranted such response? The substitute teacher reportedly used her finger to tap a student on the forehead while admonishing the student to do better. Oh the horror!!!

According to the Pasadena Star, police were called to the school on a report tthat a child had been assaulted. The case was quickly closed as the police determined that no abuse had taken place. Cpl. Craig Cooper stated that the teacher:

"used the tip of her finger and patted (the student) on the forehead,"..."She was all, `Come on, you, you can do better than that."'

South Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Brian Bristol said:

"There was a substitute teacher that engaged in conduct that we consider to be physically and verbally assaultive."
"She made a poor choice, and we do not tolerate that. Such conduct is unacceptable."

I never realized just how much abuse I suffered during my school years. Back then, a shop teacher could and would use a 3/4" thick wooden paddle to "get your attention" and it did! Guess what...he didn't have to use it very many times but we all knew he would if he needed to. We had a female teacher who was small and could not do much harm with a paddle so she made us hold our hands out, knuckles up, so she could whack them with a ruler. Then there was the shop teacher who would make us hold bricks over our heads until our arms started shaking. This usually turned into an endurance competition if more than one student was being punished.

Nobody complained to our parents because then we would be punished for getting into trouble at school in the first place.

A tap on the forehead and a little embarrassment.....give me break!