By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
A handful of parents showed up at the June 9 East Troy Community Schools Board of Education meeting to protest the two-day suspension of a teacher for grabbing a student’s arm during class.
District choir teacher Rodger Trader confirmed Friday, he was the teacher who was suspended.
“I have never done this before and never will do it again,” Trader said. My action was professionally inappropriate. I didn’t intend the student any harm, my action was simply to restrain the student so that I could talk to him.
“I willing accepted the punishment given me and while I appreciate the kind words of everyone who expressed them toward me, I understand that action must be taken in this case and the School District’s action was appropriate.”
The incident took place May 16. “After teaching that class, I was sent home with pay for the rest of that day, and was suspended without pay the following Monday, May 19,” Trader said.
The parents at the meeting asked the board why, when they had heard from their children that this particular student was a problem in the class all year, nothing had been done to control the situation before it escalated to this level.
One parent told the board she felt the teacher shouldn’t have been suspended “for disciplining a disrespectful student.”
“We need to be informed of this kind of event,” she said. “I really want to know what happened to that kid.”
Superintendent Chris Hibner told the parents that neither the district administration nor the board members could talk about a particular student and/or any disciplinary actions taken against students or teachers.
Hibner said the parents should have taken the issue to the building-level administrators first, but he understood their concerns and wanted to stress that providing a safe learning environment was one of the district’s highest priority.
Hibner said the district policy on physical restraint was that it was only to be used when imminent physical threat to another student or staff member is present. He said the district had policies in place for the protection and privacy of the students and employees and while he couldn’t answer their questions, proper procedure had been followed when the matter was addressed.
School Board member Dawn Buchholtz said that her daughter was in the class and she was aware of the incident and that “as a parent,” if there was a petition to support Trader, she would have signed it.
“I think there needs to be more support for teachers to teach,” said another mother. “For a teacher to have to grab the arm of a student, and I understand there is no hands on, but if the teacher has to do something like that, I think we’re missing something.”
She went on to say that she hoped the administration was looking at both sides of the issue and they needed to understand that people wanted answers.
“The rumor mill in the High School is going,” she said. “There are rumors out there and you can’t stop that from happening.”
“My concern, as a parent, wasn’t the discipline, but that this was going on all year,” Buchholtz said. “This student should have been dealt with earlier. It should have been nipped in the bud.
“Maybe it’s because we have daughters and they feel more vulnerable, but I was grateful the teacher took control.”
“The precedent that has been set is that the teacher who took control got suspended,” said one father.
In an emailed statement Monday, Hibner wrote “Even though I am proud of the recognition for PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports) and our fairly low level of major incidents of student behavioral misconduct per year as compared to the state, we recognize the only component that matters for any parent is that of their own individual child and the experiences within our educational institution for them.
“Hence, we will always continue to strive toward providing high quality learning environments by recognizing positive student behaviors while also improving upon nonpositive student behaviors.”
