A teacher with a violent student in the classroom sustained injuries after having her requests for student removal denied. She was subsequently marked down on her appraisal.
Another teacher received low ratings after making disciplinary referrals for several violent students, and was marked down for “not meeting district expectations for classroom safety.”
Current law recognizes the need for teachers to remove students from the classroom when the student’s behavior interferes with the teacher’s ability to teach, but too often the campus administration is not supportive.
TCTA lawyers get calls about these situations frequently, and we responded by working with legislators to pass a bill this session to ensure that teachers are better supported in these situations.
Under TCTA-initiated SB 1451, sponsored by Chairman Larry Taylor and Rep. Trent Ashby,
a teacher can’t be disciplined or marked down solely on the basis of disciplinary referrals or documenting student conduct.
(Teachers can still be assigned an area of deficiency based on documented evidence of a deficiency in classroom management through observation or a substantiated report.)
TCTA members who experience discipline issues or lack of support from their administration in discipline matters should call the TCTA Legal Department at 888-879-8282.
Remember, though
—
we can only help you if you were already a TCTA member at the time the incident happened.
