Newly Discovered Classroom Video Shows Violence Between A Student And A Substitute Teacher; Student Caught On Camera Bullying And Threatening A Teacher
PINSKY: A student at a Chicago Vocational High School caught on camera bullying and threatening, this time, a teacher. Take a look.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE STUDENT: No.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE STUDENT: No, wait. Wait. No!</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE STUDENT: Now, ask me what my name is again.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE TEACHER: Whatever you are throwing, you need to throw it away. I need you to throw it away. OK, young lady, I am going to have to ask you to have a seat. I am going to have to ask you to have a seat.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE STUDENT: You are on camera. I am fixing to smack a</s>PINSKY: Back with Loni, Vanessa, Mike and Lisa. And, joining us Cheryl Dorsey, Sergeant LAPD retired, author of "The Creation of the Manifesto: Black & Blue." Now, the video is from 2011, but it posted a few days ago and has since gone completely viral. So, we thought at best we take a good look at this. The teacher was a substitute. Now, we have been covering classroom violence recently, which is what drew our attention to this particular video. Mike, does the resource officer`s aggression the other day, when the guy that pulled that young lady out of the chair, does that behavior at least make more sense when we see maybe perhaps what he might have been up against in the classroom?</s>CATHERWOOD: It certainly, you know, is a good argument for the need for police presence on campus. I mean, I do think that with the internet being what it is and everyone having a high definition phone in their pocket, including students nowadays, there is this desire to act out, almost beyond what you would want to do, so that you can get the recognition on world star Hip-Hop or --</s>PINSKY: Wow.</s>CATHERWOOD: -- you know, Facebook or whatever it is. Because, look at it -- like this is probably the most attention this student ever gotten in his life. And, it is for what? It is for an egregiously, reprehensible behavior.</s>PINSKY: Sergeant Dorsey, I find the teacher`s behavior remarkably composed. No? Lisa, you say no?</s>BLOOM: I am saying little too composed.</s>PINSKY: Well, let me hear from the police force. CHERYL DORSEY, SERGEANT LAPD</s>BLOOM: Yes.</s>SERGEANT DORSEY: You have to set the stage in and the tone. And, obviously, she did not do that from the very beginning, because these people do not --</s>PINSKY: Is that what we are telling our teachers? They have to be police officers?</s>SERGEANT DORSEY: No. No.</s>PINSKY: I mean she is trying to run her classroom.</s>SERGEANT DORSEY: You just have to have demeanor. You have to have command presence. You have to -- if you are not a bully, well, you have to at least get in your bluff, right? Make them think that you will do bad things to them if they do not behave, even though you may not. And, so for her to be so passive, I think was really more encouraging for this young man, because all that, "Hold me back, let me at her," if he really wanted to get away and throw a chair, he could have. It was for show and it was to entertain the class. And, I think it is because she did nothing that encouraged him to act the way that he did.</s>COOMBS: I think if she had done something, he would have reacted more. I mean I give her credit. She is a substitute teacher. And, we all remember substitute teachers, everybody kind of takes advantage of them a little bit, because they do not know the students. They do not know what is going to go on. They do not know the personality of the class. And, this woman, she just remained calm. She is trying to keep the situation defuse as much as possible. She did not know how to get help. She has asked somebody, is there a security person? But, I thought she did a great job. Yes, she is a little abnormally, perhaps to the point where I wonder if she is a little bit traumatized from past experiences. I am not sure.</s>BARNETT: Or just in shock.</s>COOMBS: Yes.</s>PINSKY: Yes. That is right.</s>BARNETT: She is probably scared out of her mind. I have been a substitute teacher. And, luckily for me, I have to just worry about being hit on and not actually being hit.</s>PINSKY: Yes.</s>BARNETT: But -- humble brag. No, but I am just saying like, you know, when I was in these classrooms, I looked like one of the kids. I was fresh out of college and teaching these kids. And, there are situations that arise where you really do not know what to do, because you are coming in for the day --</s>COOMBS: Right.</s>BARNETT: -- and you are supposed to be playing a DVD or something. You do not know how to handle these situations. But, my issue is, just like it was with the young lady, who was slammed by the police officer, when do we realize that these kids are hurting? Like what do we do -- when do we talk to these kids to figure out what is wrong?</s>PINSKY: Well, what do you do with that?</s>BARNETT: OK. Not that substitute teacher, but that was not the first time this kid acted out.</s>PINSKY: Right.</s>BARNETT: That was not the first time he is showing out and going completely ignorant in class. But, like the young lady that was sitting at her desk, no one knew what she was going through at home. And, so, we can get to these kids at an earlier stage and figure out what else is going on. Maybe we can avoid situations like this where kids do not know how to handle whatever it is happening in their minds.</s>SERGEANT DORSEY: And, what was the consequence for that activity? That is what we do not know.</s>BLOOM: Yes.</s>SERGEANT DORSEY: That is what we do not know. Because, I think if she --</s>PINSKY: We do not know.</s>SERGEANT DORSEY: If the mindset was to allow him to do this and he will never do this again, because at the end of the day there will be a serious consequence, then I am OK with that. But, just to let him bully you like that, then what do you do tomorrow? What do you do next week when you come back?</s>BLOOM: It is the teacher`s job to control the classroom. The teacher is the adult in the classroom. No, and you cannot just sit there. So, my mother was a substitute teacher in Watts in the 1960s during the riots. All 5`2" and 95 pounds of her. And, nobody gave her any trouble. I mean, every teacher knows the first thing you have to learn how to do is control your classroom, whether you are a substitute or not. I am not blaming her. I am sorry if she was hurt emotionally or physically in this incident. But, teenagers are going to rough it up. They are going to push the boundaries. I have raised two kids. I got a 16-year-old at home right now. You have got to take control when you are the adult.</s>PINSKY: Vanessa, what are you suggesting? What do you think we are going to find there?</s>BARNETT: I do not know, but I fell like a lot of times we feel --</s>PINSKY: Because people do a lot of that work, a lot of that work.</s>BARNETT: But not in those inner city classrooms.</s>PINSKY: Yes. Sure.</s>BARNETT: I have been in those schools. I went to inner city school, where there was all kinds of things happening on the premises. We were walking through metal detectors. We had security officers on site. And, so, I know what it is when you have a classroom full of rowdy kids. But, I also know that some of the kids come from broken homes.</s>PINSKY: OK, from broken home.</s>BARNETT: Some of these kids do not eat. They do not have --</s>PINSKY: Malnutrition. I agree with you.</s>BARNETT: They do not have --</s>PINSKY: Horrible environment.</s>BARNETT: Horrible environment.</s>PINSKY: The violence they are growing up in, right?</s>BARNETT: And, a lot of these kids maybe have mental health issues, maybe there is ADD. Maybe ADHD, maybe there is --</s>PINSKY: Yes. OK. So, now, what are you going to do?</s>BARNETT: There are various of things, but all we see --</s>PINSKY: There you go. You listed four really important things --</s>BARNETT: -- are bad kids, and we want to arrest them now?</s>PINSKY: No. No. I see --</s>BARNETT: You want to put officers it the class.</s>PINSKY: I see mental health stuff. I do.</s>BARNETT: Exactly. but who is talking to these kids? Who is pulling them into the counseling office instead of the detention hall? Who say, "OK, you are acting out and you will be punished?" But let us also talk about what is happening at home. What is happening in your heart and your mind? No one cares. They just want to push them on through the system and they may end up in jail somewhere.</s>PINSKY: I totally agree with you. Do you think that kid want to sit in a therapist`s office?</s>BARNETT: Kids do not want to do a lot of things. He did not want to be at school, either.</s>PINSKY: Yes.</s>BARNETT: And, so, that is where it takes these adults to say, "No, you are going to sit here. You are going to tell me what is happening." Because maybe not the first, second or third time, but someone needs to tap in and help him before he hurts himself or someone else.</s>BLOOM: And, I think they do want somebody talk to. You know, I interviewed a lot of inner city boys for my book`s wager, which is about raising boys. And, I am walking into schools, who am I, a total stranger. And, I would sit and talk to them for hours. They were delighted to have somebody take an interest in their lives, to find out what was going on, to give them suggestions about things they could do. I think a lot of boys in particular are crying out for an adult to take an interest in them.</s>PINSKY: Listen. I will tell what. One -- one positive relationship sustained with an adult after age 8 and forward, can change the direction of a life. One positive relationship. If each of us could maintain a positive relationship with a kid in need, particularly those of us that are men, who kids without fathers -- Mike, you have something to say?</s>CATHERWOOD: Well, I also -- I think that what Lisa was talking about, the need to have an interaction with adults, it goes to show that nowadays, even in the best of circumstances, with the most caring parents, we spend so little time with our children, because we make less money working more hours.</s>PINSKY: Yes.</s>CATHERWOOD: In proportion to, you know, what it is to cost of living, we all work way more than we used to, and now someone who has a good job cannot support a family. So, most families have two -- you know, two incomes.</s>PINSKY: Yes.</s>CATHERWOOD: And, it is just the way this world is working. I think we are dealing with a different set of children. You know, like Lisa was talking about her mother working in Watts in the` 60s. I think even in the neighborhood like Watts, it is a whole different group of children now.</s>PINSKY: I totally agree.</s>CATHERWOOD: Their idealism --</s>PINSKY: Yes.</s>CATHERWOOD: -- and everything is skewed to a way that makes it much harder to deal with.</s>PINSKY: I think we are hungry as a country for answers along these lines, exactly what that is going to look like in the future. I just do not know because it is expensive, so, unless, we all take it on ourselves. We got now -- next up, students rallying behind the classroom cop. The resource officer who had been fired, that gentleman there, for throwing a student across the room. You will hear about that after this