As a graduate of the Mpls Public Schools system who also attended Susan B. Anthony Middle School, I find the actions by these two teachers abhorred!
******************************************************************** Wednesday, September 01, 2004 Humiliation by teachers may leave lasting scars by Lauretta Dawolo The Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education has finally taken action in the case of Jordan Harper. On June 3rd, Harper, who at the time was in eighth grade at Susan B. Anthony Middle School, was humiliated in front of his peers as well as faculty and staff members. Teachers ordered him to crawl up and down a school hallway. The humiliating incident that has had a major impact on Jordan and his family. It has taken a significant amount of time for the Harper family to persuade school officials to pay attention to their son�s case. It wasn�t until July 13th that a decision to take disciplinary action was made. The School Board gave the perpetrator teachers, Jennifer Hansen and Theresa Agerter, 10-day suspensions and appointed them to take special harassment and sensitivity training. The Harper family and other community members are not satisfied with the rather modest punishment. �I am appalled. These teachers should not be teaching at all,� said Francine Chakolis, President of the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of Black School Educators (NABSE). �The school system needs to find a way to monitor the teachers. All we hear about is the childrens� behavior, especially Black children,� she said. Jordan Harper is an exception. This ambitious young man who was top of his class and who was a proven leader and peer-mediator at his school, gets good grades and does not have a history of behavioral problems. Jordan was the keynote speaker at his graduation ceremony. At the ceremony he gathered close to nine different awards for academic excellence, service, and leadership just to name a few. According to the Star Tribune (June 22nd), �Harper has had good relations with the two accused teachers. In fact, one of them nominated him for the presidential academic achievement award, one of several citations he received upon graduating from Anthony.� On June 3rd, Jordan was working on his final paper in advisory class, which is a class that usually allows school time for students to complete assignments, address problems with their teachers, or socialize with their peers. In thinking about his mother�s pleas to complete his course work in a timely manner in preparation for graduation, he was in class pushing himself to put the finishing touches on his final paper, he said. Unexpectedly, the advisory class instructor, Jennifer Hansen said, �You can�t work on that [paper] in my class or I�ll rip it up.� The student went down to the U.S. History classroom to work on his paper as the assignment was for this class anyway. The U.S. History instructor, Theresa Agerter, received a call soon after Jordan entered the classroom. The student and his mother, Pamela Harper, are still uncertain as to who was on the other end, but they speculate that it could have been Hansen. The student witnessed laughing and snickering by Agerter while she was on the phone. Soon thereafter, the �crawling game� began. Agerter got off of the phone, jokingly telling the student, �You can�t work on your paper here, you�ll have to go back to the advisory class. But you�ll have to crawl and if you don�t, I�ll tear up your paper.� At first the student pretended to crawl, but then he knew his teachers were serious as they permitted other students to watch and held stern expressions on their faces. The first person that came to the student�s rescue happened to be the student�s math teacher (an African American male), who stopped the display because he did not think it was funny. �He said when he saw Jordan�s face, he knew something was wrong,� said Pamela Harper, Jordan�s mother. She said he then reported the incident to the Assistant Principal, who told him to bring the matter up at the teachers� [team] meeting. The math instructor confronted both responsible teachers and they apologized. But the apology wasn�t heard loud enough. The eighth grader, the witnesses in the hallway, or his mother did not hear it. http://www.insightnews.com/articles.asp?mode=display&articleID=1455 Shawn Lewis, Field Neighborhood -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
