OT Rant and advice needed for a sticky situation

[Krista, Angel, and Toby]

Ok, so all of you veteran teachers, I need help. I have a student who is so rude, so disrespectful, so hateful that she makes my entire day ruined. She is a bully to everyone, including teachers and parapros. She is spoilt rotten: her mother has no control over her and gives her new cell phones literally every month, and NICE cell phones...like iPhone, nice. She point-blank refuses to do work, or if she does, she cheats, and if I call her on it, she argues until she is blue in the face that she didn't cheat, even after I stop responding. I've tried every method I can to get her to care, to no avail. Apparently, so has the parent. (Right.)

Ok. I can handle that. I've had one of those in every grade level since I started teaching. What I can't handle is the fact that I no longer have any support, especially with this child. For all her vices (which are not just seen in my class, but others as well based on the numerous complaints) the AP that she is assigned to refuses to do anything to her. It took a group effort and a stack of documentation to get her a single day of ISS. I also think that this particular AP slanders other teachers to this students' face based solely on a remark by this child. ("Mr AP is AWESOME!! I'd tell you what he said about you, but he told me not to tell!") Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but I honestly don't give the child enough credit for thinking of that on her own.

Anyway, I am moving schools after this year. The problem is, this particular AP is following me to that same school in the role of an AP. (Thankfully the child described above is not!) There's bad blood between us because he has failed to support me in a few other similar cases. How do I handle this? Thanks.

[Krista, Angel, and Toby]

Oh, and I forgot to mention it: when I asked about the lack of consequences for said student, it was apparently all my fault that she cheated, caused a major disruption, and cussed at me.


I'm sorry for the bitterness in the tone, but the situation makes me so mad I could punch something.

[Jeanne Ratigan]

The only way to change the student's behavior is to catch her doing the right thing and Heap on the praise. Catch others following directions, behaving appropriately, or trying their best....say something like "can everyone look at ---- she's doing just what I asked and I'm so proud of her! I'm giving her a homework pass to use whenever she wants.". This kid is just demonstrating attention getting behavior. It's our job to only give attention for good behavior.

I've also found that a phone call to the parent of usually bad kids that tells the parents something nice about their child can work wonders. I worked with behavior kids for over 25 years and my experience has taught me that the authoritarian, negative approach never has a successful outcome.

[Kyoko]

I totally agree on this one. I believe that everyone has something positive about themselves, and some strength.
And all parents want their child to succeed in school. ( Even they may not seems like it, or say that they don't care ) I am a school social worker. Does your school District have a social worker? if so, contatc him / her.

[Krista, Angel, and Toby]

I tried that. I started with rewards systems: a sort of lottery ticket for good behavior for individual students and a marble system (basically a jar that was slowly filled with marbles. If the whole class was particularly good, marbles went in the jar, and when it filled the whole class got to go outside for a fun day.) I tried offering straight-up (no lottery ticket about it) candy and praise to her too, especially. She didn't take well to that at all from day one. In fact, most of my students tended to try to manipulate the system and whine when they didn't get a lottery ticket, despite the fact that they weren't on task. I guess I wasn't doing it right, because it tended to promote behavior problems rather than correct it.

I admit, I never called Mom to say how good said child was, because almost from the start, the child went out of her way to create a "bad" reputation. And man did she create it well...

I want to be cut-out to help troubled students, but I just don't think I am. I don't have the patience and tolerance, which is why I am moving to the high school, where at least I won't have all the trouble kids in one class together with no positive peer influences like it is now. Plus, I'll get to see some of last year's heathens (I say that fondly), who I learnt to like, even if they wouldn't work for me.

[Lynda Kamrath]

Sounds like he needs a little more experience. It is a hard job, especially with this type of child. I had a girl (sixth grader) whose exit words every time she left class was "f...you" directed to me. She would tear up things and throw them in the room. I never confronted her and would just call the office and say she needed an escort. She had a good relationship with a special ed teacher who would come to take her to a quiet environment. It never really got better, but the other teachers did not know what was going on. I told the other students that I knew she had special problems and they should ignore the inappropriate behavior, which they did. I think I would compliment the other teacher on being able to form some type of relationship with the student and tell him that the student thought he was awesome. Be honest that she was a student that frequently ruined your day. You will be much happier if you can turn the "bad blood" into a congenial relationship. Good luck.

[Karen Gaffney]

This year our union made sure we were aware of this provision in our contract. I know this is not what we teachers usually want to do because we think we can handle everything. However, we were apprised that that we should remember our own rights and the rights of the others in our class. This is California ed code, hopefully other states have it as well. There is not a limit, enough suspensions and parents and administrators will take notice.They can be suspended for any behavior which keeps you from teaching.
14.3.4 Student Suspension By Teachers
A teacher may suspend any student from the teacher’s class for any
of the acts enumerated in Education Code Sections 48900 and
48910 for the day of the suspension and the day following. The
teacher shall immediately report the suspension to the responsible
administrator for appropriate action. As soon as possible, the
teacher shall ask the student’s parents or guardian to attend a
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parent-teacher conference regarding the suspension. The student
shall not be returned to the class from which the student was
suspended, during the period of the suspension, without the
concurrence of that class’ teacher and the administrator.