My son's energy and spirit diminished rapidly before my eyes. A story about a church going, school prayer meeting attending, young blonde, blue eyed soft spoken primary school teacher. Evil incarnate. STILL "teaching" and traumatising young children.
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In this particular case the bullying, so damaging, was subtle to the degree that there was not much I could do. I felt frustratingly powerless, but decided to use this opportunity to introduce my son to the "evils of the world". This is a major reason why I don't home-school, we live in an imperfect world and I need to guide my children through negative societal experiences to prepare them for adulthood. (Another con for home-schooling is that I have no patience whatsoever!)
Over the years I have experienced many dodgy school related incidents involving my daughter. I was not happy about the security of her pre-school, a fence was built. A boy bullied her and then asked for money to stop. I dealt with that and cameras were installed on the playground. When my daughter was again subjected to bullying and I was not satisfied with the reaction I got from the school, I wrote a "letter of the week" in our local paper outlining the incident. My daughter was stalked. When I was done the boy did not even look at her again. The point I am making is that when it comes to my children I am fierce.
My son had an amazing Grade 3 teacher. She encouraged him, especially his love for science, and he blossomed. I started to think I would have an easier school journey with him. Then, Grade 4. I attended the requisite parent/teacher meeting and the teacher bleated breathily about how nervous she was to address the group of parents. I didn't pay much attention. I loathe school meetings and only attended to receive the salient information.
Before long I noticed a drastic change in my son. He told me the teacher was bullying him! She had developed an instant dislike of him and spared no opportunity to put him down. At first I could hardly believe the incidents my son spoke about were true. The put downs were so subtle that he had difficulty in explaining them, he was only 10. My son told me that the way she said things was...evil. Although at first the situation was very difficult for me to understand, I have a habit of believing my children. There was nothing I could raise a formal complaint about. Meanwhile my son's school experience deteriorated drastically.
I did informally speak to the school about the situation. I also spoke to the teacher, subtly (well as subtle as I can be!). The teacher was pregnant at the beginning of the year, and would miss at least half the school year. My son and I decided that we would go along with events, as he wouldn't be in her class the whole year. To our joy her baby was premature. She left unexpectedly and early and the year improved dramatically. She did return towards the end of the year, but the birth of her first child had left her distracted. I was about to write off the whole situation and leave it at feeling sympathy for her son. Then I made a new friend. She had started visiting my shop, we clicked, and became firm friends over the months. Her son is the same age as my son so she took all the children out one day while I worked. The next day she told me that my son had told her about "the teacher".
I discovered that my new friend had placed her children in a different school directly because of this teacher. (I had even considered doing this.) My friend is mixed race, and then she is also part of a mixed race couple. Her daughter had become withdrawn to the extent that she needed to see a psychiatrist while in this teacher's class. Eventually, when all else had failed, the daughter was hypnotised to discover the root of her problem. It was there she revealed that the "sweet" church going teacher had called her an abomination. The psychiatrist advised that she be removed from the school immediately. My friend did this, she also went to discuss the matter with the school principle. The psychiatrist, one of the most respected in town, also phoned the school regarding the issue. No action was taken.
When I meet people with children that could possibly be attending this teacher's class, I always ask them about their experience. The bullying was so difficult to explain that even I had a few doubts and thought my son might be exaggerating the issue. Many parents don't believe or trust their children, especially when they are young. The matter is further complicated when the outward appearance of the psychopath epitomises innocence.
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Please believe your children. Protect them from psychopaths, abusers and pedophiles who are disguised as ordinary citizens. Our children are our future. Thank you for reading.