Video Lesson Plan

My plan for the video lesson is to record myself introducing the topic of how to use guide words in the dictionary as well as demonstrating an activity that uses this skill. I think this is an important lesson for young students to learn because it not only teaches them how to use a dictionary properly, but it also emphasizes spelling skills and alphabetization skills.

Legal Case Presentation

School District of Abington Twp. v. Schempp (1962) on Prezi

Legal Concerns

Because of the type of students that I work with, myself and some of my colleagues have recently been having a discussion that centers around the legality of teachers acting in self defense against an aggressive student. In working with kids who have severe emotional disturbances and mental health issues, the behaviors that manifest as a result of these issues are generally aggressive in nature. At the facility where I work, we are trained in crisis intervention that focuses on how to verbally de-escalate students and then also implement a physical restraint as a last resort if a child’s behaviors cannot be verbally de-escalated. 

What has spurred this discussion between my colleagues is the recent addition of a new student to our program who has a history of barricading adults in classrooms and being extremely physically aggressive toward them. While we have been trained to handle such situations, it is difficult to implement any sort of restraint on a large teenager with just one person, especially when that teenager is extremely aggressive. So, our question has been, is there ever a situation where a teacher is legally justified in using self defense against a student who is physically aggressive toward them? 

While I know that the stance of the agency I work for is that there never is and that we have been trained to use protective stances, I personally think that there should be situations where it is justified to defend oneself. While it may be wrong, I for one don’t think that I could just stand there and do nothing to protect myself if a fourteen year old with mood disorder and conduct disorder is punching me repeatedly while I am trapped in a room with them. So, I guess overall my concern is, where do we draw the line between protecting our students and protecting ourselves? Does this line even exist or do we, as teachers, have no right to defend ourselves against aggressive students? If this situation were to occur, how would it affect a teacher’s license?