Back already?

Recently, a teacher-aid at my school was dismissed from her position because she had grabbed a Kindergartner's shirt and shook the child in anger. After this child complained, another came forward with a similar story. The aid was reprimanded and I'm not sure as to the details, but she was removed from her position. Only a few weeks after the incident, a teacher pushed a student after being kicked, and the parents became involved (with a lawyer I believe). This teacher is no longer an aid at our school, but she was quickly replaced by none other than the other aid who had been dismissed only a few weeks prior!

It is important to Principals to keep their school in compliance with Special Education laws by having sufficient staff as is required by the state. It seems so absurd to me that this woman was hired back to replace someone who had committed a similar offense. One can only hypothesize that if another aid leaves, that the second offender will be hired back to the post.

Similar situations have occurred continually throughout the brief beginnings of my career as an educator. Two other examples that come to mind are a teacher being rehired after skipping about 30 days of school and an aid who was rehired only a couple of years after scamming a significant portion of the staff in a false charity collection. Is it really so bad that schools need to re=hire people who do not follow the rules and are terminated? Is the quality of faculty in the city this dismal? There is little competition for these jobs, which creates situations where people who do not have the necessary qualifications or character traits wind up in these positions. Many of the teachers do not live in the city (myself included), and therefor do not have things at stake as teachers who live in the city. If things go bad, we can just teach somewhere else. If more teachers lived in the city and had commitments like property that could decrease in value if crime rose and ignorance prevailed, much more would be at stake - but I think the number of people from outside the city will to do that are few and far between - and it is difficult to cultivate a class of professionals from within a system and a city culture where education is not valued or respected. I would imagine that many of those who grow up in the city and are successful move far away as soon as they are able to. I can't say I blame them, nor can I guess what my reaction would be were I in a similar situation. The city can be draining whether you are a resident or just an employee. I hope that someday that will not be the case.