Math Teacher in California on Paid Leave After Rattling Table in Class
An eighth-grade math teacher in Northern California is on paid administrative leave after rattling a classroom table to get his students’ attention Tuesday.
After receiving reports that a teacher at Atherton’s Selby Lane School was creating a disturbance and possibly hurling objects, officers went to the campus in the afternoon only to find a composed teacher who insisted that nothing was thrown, reports the Palo Alto Daily News.
Atherton Police Department’s Sgt. Tim Lynch said that a female student, startled by the teacher’s table-rattling, left class and used her cellphone to call police, the publication reports. Most students in the math class were not disturbed by the teacher’s behavior, Lynch said.
The table-shaking incident and its ramifications have some questioning whether the district overreacted when it placed the math teacher on leave. “Even if the teacher was being overbearing, why is this a criminal issue? I view the decision of the student to leave school and call police to be a rather extreme response—and the suspension validates that response,“ law professor and blogger Jonathan Turley, wrote on his blog.
The math teacher will remain on leave until an investigation ends, Redwood City School District Deputy Superintendent John Baker told he Daily News. The superintendent, who says he didn’t know what exactly occurred in the classroom, plans to interview the teacher, students, the female student who called the police and her parents in the days ahead.
