Is this Right?

Teaching in Baltimore City for me has been more rewarding then not, however the issues I hear about in the news and in my classes concerns me. In recent weeks, there has been a lot of talk about a Baltimore City teacher who quit because she had been assaulted by students more then once. Now that she has quit, her certification is in jeopardy.

http://www.examiner.com/a-604122~Twice_assaulted_teacher_calls_it_quits.html
http://www.examiner.com/a-601970~City_students_assaulting_teachers.html
http://www.examiner.com/a-608819~More_assaulted_teachers_come_forward.html

What I don’t understand is why her certification is in jeopardy because she quit due to extreme situations. At the school I work, teachers have walked out and never come back, been in and out of the system for 10 years, each time doing a poor job and many of the teachers I work with aren’t even fully certified and the threat of getting their certification or lack there of taken has never come up. So, now a teacher who is considered highly qualified in Maryland terms will never be able to teach again because her school was unable to help her from getting assaulted by her students. Perhaps the city is not the place for her to teach, but I don’t think she shouldn’t be allowed to teach somewhere else.

Aside form this teacher’s certification issues, many people are just realizing that there is an issue of teachers being assaulted in city schools because this teacher has come forward is also an unbelievable fact. I hear about a teacher being assaulted in schools all the time and I have only been in the system 2 years. Unfortunately, the majority of the students we teach do not respect adults or authority and violence is their way of life. As teachers, we try to teach them that violence doesn’t solve their problems, but when they are angry, many times they revert back to what they know and use violence to get their point across even if it is at a teacher. My optimistic outlook is that if we keep trying to teach them these values, some of them will stick, but that still leaves a big question of teacher safety in the schools for those students who don’t listen.