We all know that teachers are supposed to shape children’s minds and encourage them to grow. They can really help to motivate them to reach for the stars by the lessons they teach. But, what happens when those words of encouragement turn sour?
That’s what happened for one second-grader in Lackawanna County, PA.
7-year-old Kamdyn Piland thought he was just taking a math quiz, but what happened next was something no one expected.
The boy was assigned a 50 question math quiz. While he may have tried his hardest, he was very sad when he got it back from his teacher. It wasn’t at all what he expected.
This is what his teacher, Alyssa Rupp Bohenek, wrote across the top of his paper:
“Absolutely pathetic, he answered 13 in 3 minutes! sad” and with a sad face to go along with it.
Ouch! That sad face was seen all across Kamdyn’s face as well.
Those words devastated the little boy.
In an interview with FOX 56 News, he said,
“She made me really sad and upset. I was really mad. And [it was] really mean to do.”
When he brought the paper home, his father wasn’t too happy either.
Kamdyn’s dad, Christoper, told FOX 56,
“You don’t write that on anybody’s paper, let alone a little 7-year-old, second grader’s paper.”
Christopher Piland wasn’t going to let this incident go unnoticed. He was upset and let his son’s teacher know about it.
He wrote to the teacher,
“I believe what you wrote on his paper was extremely unprofessional and just very rude.”
He said the teacher messaged him back and said she was sorry he felt that way.
Christopher was still angry and posted about the incident on his Facebook page.
The post went viral with many people expressing their opinions. Some backed the teacher while others were in Christopher’s corner. Here’s a sample of the comments:
“Looks like a teacher who’s failing to me -both as a human being AND a teacher.”
A teacher told FOX 56 News:
“We teachers do millions of things that people don’t see behind closed doors things that are good for kids. One moment can’t define this teacher’s character.”
The battle didn’t end with the Facebook post.
A petition was started to fire Alyssa, the teacher.
But, she also had supporters who believed she should keep her job. The petition to fire Alyssa had more than 17,000 signatures while the petition for her to keep her job had merely 1,000 signatures.
Christopher wasn’t taking any chances of this incident happening again in the same teacher’s class.
He had Kamdyn moved to another classroom in hopes things would get better for his son.
The district’s superintendent said they would continue to investigate the incident and it would not be swayed by social media.
While this incident happened last April, to date, there is no word whether Alyssa kept her job or not.
But, Christopher says he hopes Kamdyn’s story prevents this from happening again to other children.
“Maybe it’ll be taken seriously now and it’ll keep it from happening to other teachers and other students,” Chris told FOX 56 News.
After hearing this story, there may be plenty of teachers who think twice about what they write on a child’s paper. No one wants to be known as “that teacher”.
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