Teachers take too much grief from students, receive too little respect from administrators and have no time to plan for lessons, argued lawmakers on Tuesday, as Alabama considers a plan to codify a so-called Teacher Bill of Rights.
Those rights, ranging from the right to remove unruly students from the classroom to the right to be free of burdensome paperwork, are spelled out in the bill that worked its way through a legislative committee hearing on Tuesday.
Teachers have to put up with a bunch of crap that, in my opinion, they shouldnt have to put up with, Rep. Kerry Rich, R-Albertville, one of the bills sponsor told the committee. Rich said he modeled the bill, HB214, after Louisianas Teacher Bill of Rights and consulted laws from other states, including California, Texas and Missouri.
Teachers are, to my knowledge, said Clint Daughtry, attorney for the Alabama Education Association, the only group of college-educated professionals that I know of that run the risk on a daily basis of being hit, kicked, slapped, scratched, what have you.
He said many of the rights in the proposal are already a part of state law, but more can be done to support teachers in the classroom.
The bill of rights covers 10 areas:
The right to be free from frivolous lawsuits and immunity where appropriate,
The right to use discipline, including corporal punishment, in accordance with board policy,
The right to remove persistently disruptive students from the classroom, including when a student is impudent or defiant,
The right to have their professional judgment respected by administrators when in accordance with board policy,
The right to teach in a safe, secure, and orderly environment that is conducive to learning,
The right to be treated with civility and respect,
The right to communicate with parents and ask them to participate in appropriate student disciplinary decisions,
The right to be free from excessive and burdensome paperwork,
The right to have a mentor assigned to them when they first start teaching, and
The right to have time to collaborate with other teachers during the school day or week.
Opponents of the law argued in the hearing that some of the added protections could make it more difficult to fire bad teachers.
Attorney Carl Johnson, whose firm represents many school boards across the state, said the bill is too vaguely worded and could invite lawsuits. As currently written, Johnson said, the bill could interfere with actions school boards take to get rid of underperforming teachers by creating a right to on-the-job training and mentoring.
But the bill had more advocates than opponents on Tuesday.
Something must be done to regain the respect teachers once held in our community, said Stephen Bunt, the member services director for the Alabama Coalition of Educators.
His organization, he said, receives numerous calls every year from members who have been mentally and/or physically abused in schools by students from grades as early kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade.
That abuse, Bunt said, has been as serious as having bones broken, being punched and kicked in the stomach while the teacher is pregnant, and having computer monitors, desks, chairs, books, and anything (students) can get their hands on thrown at them by students at school.