Another viewpoint.

• Author: Gander, Lois E.
• Position: Student teacher relation

It seemed that I had hardly begun law school 30 years ago when friends began asking me about their legal problems. And one of the most common questions I was asked was what to do about a teacher who wasn't performing up to snuff or, worse, was engaging in conduct that was harming students. About 15 years ago, I encountered the problem myself as a parent. It was a vexing problem then and remains a vexing one today although there is much greater acknowledgement of the problem now than then.

We ask a lot from schools and rightly so. We entrust our children to them for a major portion of their early lives, and we expect those who teach and otherwise care for students to account for the impact they have, both positive and negative. Starting your child in school can be a scary experience. I know one parent, a teacher herself, who was tempted to send her child to school with a note: "I'm sending you a happy, healthy, curious, active, creative child. Please return in the same condition."

My first-child parent's anxiety was exacerbated by my daughter's allergic condition. Peanut butter sandwiches were a staple in many a child's diet back then, and the desks where they ate were bound to acquire peanut butter smears. How could the teacher possibly protect my child from life-threatening exposure to objects touched by her peanut butter-eating classmates? That wasn't all. My daughter loved the rough and tumble of sports. Would she have a proper phys. ed. teacher or would her homeroom teacher be expected to cover this part of the curriculum? And as computers began to be introduced into the school setting, I began to worry about what my daughter might be exposed to through her own inadvertence. Would she surf her way onto a porn site? Would she be exposed to images that might haunt her for years? How would her teacher deal with it if she did?

Like most parents, I know that school administrators are subject to a great many pressures, open to criticism by both the knowledgeable and not so knowledgeable, and often under-resourced to meet their obligations. I know, too, that as well-trained and well-meaning as teachers are, they are human and subject to the vagaries of daily life the same as me. They are up at night with their own sick kids; they have financial worries; they have elderly parents who need care and support. I know they can't possibly meet a standard of performance that I can't meet myself. I know that the solution lies in us all working together...