A kindergarten teacher in Memphis, Tenn. has been suspended for distasteful comments that she made about her young students on Facebook.
Tameka Gatewood of Rainshaven Elementary School went on the social networking site both to vent, and to respond to dealing with two young students throwing insults at each other. "How bout I blasted both of them," she wrote.
"The girl in my class hair is nappy almost every day and the boy wears dirty clothes, face nasty and can't even read. They didn't bother nobody else when I got through with them."
Despite the fact that most kindergartners are only five years old, Gatewood was scathing in her plan to discipline her students. "What do you think you're supposed to do? Bang! Bang! Shoot 'em up dammit! Just kidding!! For real tho - slap their A$$ back then Bang! Bang! Shoot 'em up dammit," she wrote in a separate post.
Now suspended without pay, Gatwood's Facebook page has been removed, but the damage is already done. "It's a much bigger issue than Facebook. It's a much bigger issue than a teacher saying a kid has nappy hair," said Memphis City School Board Commissioner Kenneth Whalum.
Since the school district has no policy about social media conduct, Gatewood assumed that her behavior was acceptable. "Every major employer will tell you on the front end now, ‘We checking your Facebook page. We know what you're saying on Twitter,'" Whalum added.
After learning of her posts, MCS administrators released a statement saying that they take the incident "very seriously," promising "swift appropriate action."
Unfortunately, Gatewood is not the only teacher to be caught down-talking her pupils. An educator in Georgia came under fire for helping students cheat, and calling them "dumb."
Saw this several days ago on another blog.
ReplyDeleteGatewood is definitely in the wrong profession.