I wrote about this when it happened and I still want to know what she did to the student. It was not made public with other court filings. I do not believe teachers automatically over students because of the power imbalance at play and the authoritarian, abusive nature of the US education system.
Too many teachers take K-12 positions for the power and control over a classroom–for that superior feeling they don’t get elsewhere in their lives.
She might not have done anything, but I have a hard time believing that since the events aren’t public knowledge. If she did not antagonize the student, then why not tell us exactly what happened. Why are we meant to form an opinion based on her tears alone?
She originally sued for $40 million and was awarded $10 million which is ridiculous to me as an educator. She knows what that money can do for the school. She knows administrators will cut funding and not dive into their discretionary funds, so why is monetary gain the goal here? She has ramped up her injuries and claims since the initial filing. She was shot through the hand, but later claimed it passed into her chest and collapsed a lung. We have no public medical statements from the court and her claims against 3/4 school officials were dismissed for insufficient evidence.
The little boy now has to wait 4 years before his mother is back home, assuming the courts will allow him to return. The white teacher shattered a family and used a tragedy to destroy a Black woman’s career. A fellow (white) teacher claimed she warned the principal multiple times, but took no action on her own? None? And she isn’t being held accountable nor was she named by Zwerner?
We are missing so much information, but news coverage presents this as a cut-and-dry case with no room for community investigation oversight. We are supposed to be angry that a child with “behavioral issues” wasn’t kicked out of school and shunned by his community.
I am not saying teachers can’t be victims or that what happened wasn’t sad, but I haven’t liked this story since it broke in 2023 and my concerns have gone unaddressed by media reporting. We aren’t talking about a high schooler, a hormonal teenager… we are talking about a 6 y/o first grader. And the teacher contributed to media narratives about him being a dangerous little monster. A little Black boy.
“The lawsuit said those warnings began with Zwerner telling Parker that the boy ‘was in a violent mood,’ had threatened to beat up a kindergartener and stared down a security officer in the lunchroom.”
“In the lawsuit, Zwerner’s attorneys say all of the defendants knew the boy ‘had a history of random violence’ at school and at home, including an episode the year before when he ‘strangled and choked’ his kindergarten teacher.”
Does she speak about white students like this? To me, it sounds like the student would be aware of the teacher’s attitudes. And it is highly suspicious to claim a child “strangled and choked” his teacher at the age of 4 or 5 without any sort of repercussion. Are these adult women so threatened by small children? Find a new job.
I just don’t see this as being unrelated to settler colonial violence and white supremacy within the education system.
The following was my initial commentary from 7 September, 2023:
This story got real racist real fast.
I have new questions for the teacher regarding her interactions with Black students. Black boys are singled out for “behavior” correction more frequently than any group, with Native boys being second, and Black girls being third. Black boys also experience more frequent rates of punishment, referrals, suspensions, etc.
I didn’t read every story about this, but I read and watched enough that I should have been told the child’s race at some point. No interviews I’ve come across ask the teacher about her relationship with her students, particularly students of color. No one has brought up her rates of disciplinary action or referrals.
We are being purposefully denied important facts surrounding this case.