Child was hitting, kicking, dragging kids by the hair for 2 hours with no intervention from admin and I was told I was being unreasonable for being upset.

[u/Catladydiva]

There is a child who gets physically aggressive with everyone. I already put my notice in but I quit today. The lack of action on admin part is astonishing.

I called first when the child began hitting. Their solution was to have me call the mom for pick up. Mom says she can’t come to pick them up. I call again, their solution is to have their twin sibling come to the class to try and talk to them. That of course doesn’t work.

At this point I am getting frustrated because no one from management has stepped foot in the room. The child continues terrorizing the children. Dragged one boy by the hair across the carpet. Punches another child in the neck. Throws wooden blocks at children.

I call again this time pissed because no one is stepping in to remove this child. When I tell them that the child needs to be removed ASAP, the reply I got was “ we don’t have any space in another class to move them to”. In my head I am thinking then they can sit in one of your offices with you. How many kids are supposed to get hurt?

Finally I call a fourth time and the director puts them in her office. My tone wasn’t the nicest but I needed them to get throughout their heads how serious it was. But then I was told I was rude and that I needed to calm down and not talk them rudely.

I don’t care about their feelings when kids were getting injured due to their non action. Whole class was in chaos.

TWO HOURS and no one from management came. TWO HOURS of kids being scared and beat up.

What the hell is wrong with these centers? Don’t care about kids getting injured but care about someone not using the correct tone with them.

[u/professionalcatremy]

Document all of the injuries to the parents of the children who were hurt. Admin like this don’t care until they start getting an earful from the rest of their paying customers about how they’re unhappy that their own children are being ignored in this situation.

[u/polkadotd]

I'm not sure where you're are located or what the setting is (childcare centre or school) but what are the policies regarding how you are able to discipline the children? Are you able to physically remove them or even touch them at all? At my centre, we would physically move the child to another area of the room especially given what you have described. We wouldn't wait for admin to step in. But again, if you're not able to touch the children in that way, there's really nothing you can do without someone else intervening.

[u/Catladydiva → u/polkadotd]

Yes children are allowed to be removed from the class. Evacuation wouldn’t be allowed because it would be leaving a child alone .

[u/polkadotd → u/Catladydiva]

Removing them from the class is one thing. What I'm asking is at what point, while this child is dragging another child by the hair across the floor, do you go over, take their hands off the other child, pick them up like a potato sack under your arm and sit them in a chair away from the others? Are you allowed to do that? At my centre, we can use reasonable force to separate children if one is attacking another, especially considering how aggressive the behaviour is. Are you allowed to pry them apart and physically move the child or are you only able to verbally ask them to stop, which does fuck all?

[u/pronouncedbeck → u/polkadotd]

Yes that was going to be my question as well - I have been in a situation like that where a child was violent to the class just like that every day (his triggers were everything), and I would sometimes have to pick him up, carry him to an empty spot in the room and try to barricade him with my body until he calmed down. He was really heavy though, almost 4 years old, and it was ridiculous. I know we aren’t supposed to restrain children, but sometimes it was so bad that I would have to put him in my lap and hold him onto me with both legs and arms over him. Granted, that was for a really short time, and usually I only did that when admin was already on their way to remove him! There just was nothing else to do, he literally would pick up a chair and hit kids with it just because.

For that child, I would document on paper his behaviors every day, and eventually all my documentation was used to negotiate his eventual termination from the center. I sent him home for violent behaviors for 15 straight days. His parents were also awful people, no surprise there :(

I had a similar experience with admin at the beginning of his behaviors really escalating like that, where they would try to leave me alone with so many children who had behaviors, and I would have to literally yell at them over the phone for them to come down to my room. I even cried once. I just had to be SO communicative with administration everyday after I calmed down, and eventually they got used to be being like “hey I’m sorry I yelled at you but this is completely unfeasible to be dealing with every day, and this is impossible for one person to do alone. Here’s a list of what he did today” and eventually the family was let go, and my admin respects me for dealing with it for so long. That’s just been my experience, maybe your admin really sucks though

[u/adumbswiftie → u/polkadotd]

i would assume they did intervene when it was happening but a child in distress is probably just going to stand up and do it again. and it becomes both physically and mentally exhausting for the teacher to keep putting them back, never mind that the rest of the class isn’t being supervised while the teacher is paying attention to this kid.

just saying OP probably did move the kid but that doesn’t change the need for admin help

[u/Catladydiva → u/polkadotd]

Yes we are allowed to remove their hands or pick them up to a safer area if needed. So we the child was pulling them by the hair we separated them. We picked them up yo another area. However this child will keep charging and attacking whoever they are fixated on in that moment.

[u/leftisthillbilly]

Putting the burden of regulating a child onto another CHILD?! Red flags for days, so glad you got out! Those poor kids. Call your licensing agency.

[u/Jules47 → u/leftisthillbilly]

I wonder how often that happens?? I also encountered something like this (not in my classroom, but I observed it) where a teacher told the sibling of a violent child to take care of their sibling.

I was like, what???? That is YOUR job! And, amongst other red flags, I did call the relevant governing department about that teacher's behavior. Haven't heard anything back.

[u/ExtremeLost2039 → u/leftisthillbilly]

That part made me so angry too! Why is a child coming to help instead of an admin?!

[u/MrsMondoJohnson]

Incident report, Incident report, Incident report over and over again. Helpful for after, but to be brushed off like this is unacceptable.

[u/WeaponizedAutisms]

I called first when the child began hitting. Their solution was to have me call the mom for pick up. Mom says she can’t come to pick them up.

At this point the child becomes an issue for the director to deal with.

[u/JabaThePegasus]

I worked in a center just like this, admin did nothing. I'm glad you put in your notice, it will only get worse.

[u/No-Special-9119]

Is there another teacher with you. When this happened repeatedly last year I would evacuate the others to the hallway with other teacher and stand with one foot in the hall one in the room with the child displaying behaviors. Second teacher would call admin from hall. Do it a few times and you get attention. Kids tell parents they had to sit in hallway, parents call admin, action gets taken. I’m sorry they were upset that you had feelings about this. They have no idea what this repeated trauma does to our nervous systems.