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Teacher bullying rant recorded--
Noelle Smith teaches third grade at Sylvan Park Elementary School.
A Metro elementary school teacher was placed on administrative leave Monday after an audio tape of her insulting her students surfaced.
Noelle Smith teaches third grade at Sylvan Park Elementary School in Nashville.
Concerned parents exclusively told Nashville's News 2 they placed a tape recorder in their daughter's backpack after the student made a disturbing statement.
"She made the statement a couple of nights ago and it just killed me," said the parent who asked not to be identified. "[She said], 'Well, maybe I should just die.'"
"I mean she's just a kid," the father continued. "I said, ?Honey, don't say that, that's way too far. That's too much, just calm down. Do your homework. Pay attention.' Things like that, but the aggressive nature that we ended up catching, that I didn't even believe existed, really explained everything."
The parents put the recorder in their daughter's backpack to see what exactly Smith was saying to students last Tuesday.
"Alright, put it in your pocket, its recording. Make sure nobody sees it and you don't tell anybody either," the mother is heard telling her daughter.
On the tape, Smith is heard making degrading remarks to her students.
"Mark it wrong. Get a brain. I don't know if you can grow one overnight," she says.
"How hard is that [student's name]? Impossible? And I think you actually have to read information carefully before you try to answer things," she says to another.
"I think you're really going to bomb the language and reading part [student's name]. I'm not playing when I say that," Smith says to a third.
The relentless insults continue and don't stop at the students. Smith also insults their parents.
"Your parents are your very first teacher and they have a job to do," she remarks. "Your mother is frankly not doing her job."
She tells another student, "This is ridiculous. Call the Homework Hotline. Get your old brother. I know nobody speaks English at your house. Maybe they should learn just a little bit more so they can help you with your work. I don't know what to say. If I lived in this country I would want to learn the language."
By the end of the day, the hidden tape recorder captured more than three hours of audio.
"We didn't know when to stop listening to the full three hours, but we tried to say, ?Okay if it calms down in the next two or three minutes, we'll stop and think about what we're going to do,' but those two or three minutes never came," the parent told Nashville's News 2."The sad thing is, I wish it was on camera so I could just see how crazy she was acting."
He continued, "When she came home that day when we put the tape recorder in her backpack, she said, ?This is the first day I wasn't scared because you would hear everything that was said.'"
Nashville's News 2's alerted Metro school officials about the recording.
After listening to just 25 minutes, Associate Superintendent of Elementary Schools Brenda Steele stated she had heard enough.
Smith, a tenured teacher, was told to report to the administration building Monday morning.
School officials told Nashville's News 2 Smith will remain on leave while the incident is investigated.
"The employee is on leave during that process and there are several steps. It can take some time, but the teacher won't return to the classroom during this investigation and during this process," Assistant to the Director of Metro Schools, Meredith Libbey said.
Nashville's News 2 recently spoke with parent Penny Davis who said she had her son moved from the school to Charlotte Park because of differences with Smith's teaching style.
"In her class he had straight F's. Two weeks after he left her on November 9, he [comes] home [with] an award from another school, ever since with an award from another school. Ever since then, every six weeks he's got another one. His reading level supposedly went from a 24 to a 40," she explained.
Davis, who is a fourth generation Sylvan Park Elementary parent, added she is not surprised at what was discovered on the recording.
"Not shocked at all. I'm glad because now, not only will it not happen to my child, it won't happen to any other child," she said.
The incident remains under investigation.
Re: Teacher bullying rant recorded--
Above Us Only Sky
meh. Test pressure sucks, especially for teachers, because it's our jobs on the line if the students don't do well.
However, that's no excuse. If what is reported there is accurate, she should be fired. You don't talk to students (hell, any kids) like that, ever.
Just like the PP said you can't let testing get to you that bad. Yes, it's stressful when those results come back, or when students are speeding through a test, blah, blah, blah. But you NEVER talk to a kid like that.
Agreed. I could write off ONE vent directed at ONE kid as MAYBE a result of stress, but not repetitive crap like this.
And, the fact that multiple kids were involved speaks volumes, too.
I agree, but several of her comments were telling kids they weren't going to pass the state test
Above Us Only Sky
There's probably both going on here....an inappropriate teacher under pressure regarding the state tests. I won't excuse her remarks, but like I stated in my signoff thread re: concern about others' wiring kids
Let the recordings begin! This is going to become a regualr thing folks. Teachers beware.