Teacher Calls Students "Filthy Animals," Gets Fired

Great decision - completely deserved it. Common sense (and class) are anything but common. Obviously they don't teach that at Cornell.

they aren't filthy animals. they're worse than that.

but 10th graders in this city ARE filthy animals.

he was just being honest.

hmmm the global enterprise academy,
I'm guess it's neither Global, an enterprise nor an academy.

we are talking about high school animals that would make you cross the street if you ran into them at night.

i'm glad allie25, Nick S & Gothamist_Cynic get it.

he was fired for verbally abusing students but i'm sure this kid suffered zero repercussions:

'he was merely responding to one student's instruction to "get the f- - - out of my face."'

wow...some of the comments I'm reading on this post, and many others, show me that there is huge level of ignorant, pompous, prejudiced and hateful readers of this blog.

I didn't realize this blog was popular with the Hannity/O'Reilly crowd.

Guy should get a medal.

I agree with him. Some students think school is one big joke and good way to meet up and chill out with your friends instead of learning. It doesn't help when parents think school is a good method of babysitting their child. Once comes gradation day and students learn they aren't able to graduated the joke is on them and the parents blame the school.

"he was fired for verbally abusing students but i'm sure this kid suffered zero repercussions"

I'll add to the chorus of agreement to the description that these kids are "filthy animals" and for the most part won't amount to much. They'll either be in jail, dead, dead in jail or homeless (as the recent stats show where they'll be in a few years) without a H.S. Diploma or just a GED won't cut it in today's world.

Okay, let me get this straight, a majority of you are saying that this teacher was justified in calling his students 'filthy animals'

How would you classify yourselves? suggesting pushing them all of a roof? having them all nuetered?

not all of you haters are making that extreme an argument, but justifying that other fellow human beings are below yourselves, puts you on a level waaaay below 'filthy animals'

perpetuating that these kids are lost from the start does nothing to solve the problem.

aa77 nobody said ther are lost from the start but by 10th grade every teacher knows who is going to college, who is going to community college to take high school level courses & who is going to beat up columbia kids.

get a clue. where do you live? tell me about all the angels who go to school near you.

How about firing the parents? That's where the real problem is. No amount of increased teacher salaries is going to make a world of difference.

At least this guy was trying to do something good for the world. He could have been like 90 percent of his fellow Ivy League graduates and gone to Wall Street and collapsed the Western financial system.

I taught HS in the city for 6 years. Yes, I left for economic reasons, so ding me as a sell-out if you wish. I taught in a pretty rough school (Franklin K Lane.) I was attacked by a group of students once, and I was their target due to my race (white.) I loved teaching, and by and large the kids were terrific. I coached and developed curricula and advised clubs. It is challenging because in any large school, if we assume perhaps 10% of the kids are troublemakers, the numbers are considerable (at Lane, with 5000+ students at the time, that meant around 500 difficult kids.)

You're all missing the point. He was a school teacher, entrusted to do an important job. Yes, high school students are often rude, sloppy, disrespectful, arrogant, offensive, etc., etc. HE MAY NOT SPEAK THIS WAY ABOUT THEM, ESPECIALLY IN FRONT OF THEM. HE FAILED AT HIS JOB. Do you understand? End of line.

and republicans want to be pro-life? this is why I'm not pro-choice but pro-abortion. You know how much money these kids siphon off your taxes and then they don't even finish school? school is just a breeding ground to them. They pop our more babies and then after they drop out of school, they try to get jobs but they can't even work at mcdonald's right. seriously, go to a mcdonald's in Upstate NY and see the difference in service. After they get fired from mcdonald's they start a life of crime, muggings, raping and killing, and they live in the projects too. Then when they get caught by the police they go to jail which is subsidized by the government. So let's see how much we pay for these guys from birth to death. first, born in hospital paid by medicare, then taken home to the government subsidized projects, then goes to school for free with free lunches, uses free food stamps, fails school, becomes criminal then has to use police resources to catch the kid, has to have expensive defense lawyer and trial paid for by government, then sent to government subsidized jail for the rest of their life, but before that they probably left 3 kids out there to start the cycle again. All this paid for by the government and who pays for the government? your tax dollars. You are basically raising the people that make you scared to walk the streets at night. I went to public school in Oregon before I moved to NYC in the second grade and the first thing they said to me was "you can read? that's amazing!" I've been through the hell that is the NYC public school education system and I can say that they should blow up all the schools. 80% of those kids will be criminals.

A lot of you are missing an important word in the story. He was a "Fellow," which means he was brought in through the fellowship program. This is more a fault of the school system and the failed fellowship program than anything. The teaching fellowship is supposedly for career changers, but as I realized when I interviewed it's mostly applicants like the teacher above. They couldn't get jobs, so apply to teach as a means and resume builder. They're not qualified and don't want to make a change. As a fellow you're put in the worst schools on purpose, it's to fill critical needs spots. This guy is obviously part of the problem, because he was put in a school and kicked out. It's keeping a high turnover rate for these fellows, because guys like this can't hack it. The high turnover rate the fellowship provides undermines the teachers union and their demands.

The fellowship program in theory is great in theory, but in execution is an absolute joke. If this sounds like it's coming from a bitter rejected fellowship applicant you're absolutely right. I was rejected. I didn't need a job, I've got a great job. I was going to take a pay cut to teach. I wanted to go make a difference, and I wasn't hired. They hire people like the guy above. The program seriously needs an overhaul, or a better selection process.

@gary walker - The fellows program hires teachers, doesn't train them and then throws them into the worst schools you can imagine. There are very few teachers who are naturals, but it's nice to know that you've convinced yourself that you'd be a natural if they just would have hired you.

im a pro-choice, liberal female and i think that most kids are ignorant, filthy brats. just becuase im a democrat does not mean i dont believe in accountability, or calling a spade a spade for that matter.

#19 i could not agree more. i am only 24 and am astounded by how much these kids get away with. when in the scheme of things, they are not that much younger than me. it is horrifying and amazing at the same time, how much our society has changed to allow this kind of behavior to be so prevelant in our schools. kids literally get away with murder. its amazing how much accountability has gone out the window. shift the responsibility for raising your child to teachers, the media, society, whatever. it makes me fucking sick. all this whining and entitlement and the parents who create this kind of environment.. we are totally fucked as a country.

#27; leaving work one day I was headed down to the E/V platform at 53rd street. I was going down the escalator, and there was a group of middle/HS aged children going up across from me. there were about 5 of them. they were taking fistful of change and literally throwing down the escalor at the crowd behind them and screaming and laughing. after they would throw a fistful, they would push people in front of them out of the way and run past them. are you fucking kidding me? where are the fucking cops when you need them huh?

pretty foolish of them to throw away their life savings so foolishly. assholes.

I feel bad for the well-to-do students (they do exist) who overheard this teacher's rant. They must feel really good about being called filthy animals.

I would think the smart kids would be smart enough to know who the teacher was referring to.

Love the Andy Bernard reference...

"ever heard of it???"

"He then went on to describe the 10th-graders as "filthy animals who belonged in a f- - -ing zoo."

I hope his students didn't have their own children with them when he used that kind of language!!!

Fortunately there is a solution to the over crowding and violence in our schools. Sterilize all children and when they reach the age of twenty five allow them to breed if they meet certain qualifications. Like being able to spell cat and knowing that George Washington was a president.

@49 -- because it's his job, for which he was being paid. Taxpayer money, I might add. He's not exactly the only person who has to deal with disrespectful assholes on the job, and most of the rest of us manage to keep it together somehow.

If you don't like the idea of bratty 16-year-olds trying to get under your skin, here's an idea: don't try to be a teacher at a public high school. If "get the fuck of my face" was enough to send Clark into hysterics because his ivy league diploma wasn't getting respect, then he wouldn't have lasted a week in my lily-white academic magnet HS, nevermind the damn Bronx.

"It's the fucking liberals who have enabled these little fuckers to run rampant."

How so?

Those kids need some basic at Paris Island, then off to Iraq for IED sniffing duty.

For every teacher out there who's chastising this guy for losing his cool, I bet there's 5 wishing they could do that.

I am a teacher in NYC and a teaching fellow. While this guy made an incredibly stupid decision, by high school these kids have lived in a consequence-free world. Just last week a student called one of our teachers a bitch because she asked for a hall pass in front of the principal. Absolutely nothing happened. The point is, as soon as this guy called the students "filthy animals," he became in the wrong. He should have done what I do: wait until happy hour and then call them filthy knuckle-dragging, mouth breathing imbeciles or whatever else you want to free and clear.

Also, to Gary Walker, you have to be braindead not to get into the fellows. But since you wrote a redundant sentence: "The fellowship program in theory is great in theory," I might see your problem. You see, to teach in the city, you actually have to be able to read and write. Brush up, and we welcome you to apply next year.

I beleive it was the apostle Mathew who said in the beatitudes, ""Blessed are the assholes, for they will inherit the earth."

To Gary Walker: your comments about the Fellows program shows a lack of education and quite frankly (by self admission as well) bitterness. I am a Fellow myself, in my fifth year of teaching. I have one colleague who is spearheading an entirely new math curriculum with Texas Instruments and another who has been invited to speak at the National Council for Teachers of English Convention. This is *the* convention for the high school English teaching profession. This is not to mention the amazing work I see from Fellows in their very first year. Nearly my entire school is a staff of Fellows, including one of the Assistant Principals and I have never seen a group of people more dedicated to their work of helping these students.

As for this teacher, my money on what happened is this: he was having an awful day. The comment the student made to “Get the f--- out of my face” was probably just one in a string of many problems that day. He was venting to a colleague. Teachers are pros at complaining—we need to be for our own health and sanity. I am willing to bet that he didn’t truly mean what he said, it was said out of frustration and anger and yes, hurt. The level of disrespect that teachers in inner city schools have to face is staggering, and it is quite surprising that you don’t hear more about teachers physically hitting students. It is also difficult to have all your hard work and effort thrown back into your face when you’re trying to reach out and help. So this guy said something disgusting because he was so utterly disgusted.

The thing that you don’t know is that I am willing to stake money on the fact that there’s a next chapter to the story. The next day he went in and had a wonderful day, and the students he wanted to throttle the day before suddenly showed themselves to be funny and intelligent. Such is teaching. Was his comment said in the wrong place? Absolutely. Does he sound kind of arrogant? Well, yes. But I think it’s unfair to damn a teacher for one moment of misplaced frustration, especially when as so many other people pointed out, the students do worse and face no repercussions.

To those of you who were upset at people siding with the teacher and crying racism, I have to say you need to stop the bleeding heart liberal stuff. It doesn’t help the problem to say “But they’re disadvantaged! If you speak down to them it’s only oppressing them!” No. By lowering the expectations for these students and excusing such behavior and condemning a person for becoming revolted by such atrocious behavior you’re essentially saying these students are incapable of meeting higher societal standards. It’s backhanded racism. I have seen students in inner city schools with excellent manners. They even know themselves when they cross the line. Don’t push the line back or get upset at someone for expecting more.

"It's a class/ societal thing. Our classes tend to be drawn along racial lines, but the issue is really socioeconomic, not racial." Huh? How about the "socio" part of the socioeconomic thought? Yes it's social oriented because a large majority of the people of color seem to be creating a whole new concept of what is socially acceptable.

Of course there will be people of color teaching in the schools, are they the majority of teachers in the problem schools? I don't give a shit about the administration being the people of color and also in the majority. Can they talk to the students one to one using proper English? I doubt it.

oops- typo snoopy-and there is no proper English, it's Standard American English- get outdoors and meet real people a bit more, don't believe everything you see on television.

Ugh. It is so obvious most of you are racist and ignorant sociopaths! Yes, Kids are getting rude and baddly mannered by the split second, but not it is based on their individual choice and that one role model that helped them pull through!
for the liberal prochoice woman, you sound like one of those cosmo reading prostitues! And for Hitler's fan, you are worse than those " filthy animals"...you are truly sub-human. For the Prick who wants asian and white kids around minorites, yes we should all be united, but sadly we are not. We should just have all the gangster chinks and meth using crackers thrown away with the other life wasting idiots, and leave all the other respectful and hardworking children of all races and socio-economic backrounds in schools, working together.

Obviously most of you have a lack of tolerance and a high grade of of ignorance. Its sad they let such "real scum" like you people come to a city like this. If you dont like it, leave. I do take the train to college and work, and its annoying having hormonal, independece seeking immature kids being obnoxious, but how mature are you to drop an f bomb eevery 2 hours in this blog and at the bar, about it. Dont like it? DO SOMENTHING ABOUT IT! Oh, by the way, this country offers many opportunities, but saddly, the "underdeveloped" countries (by US standards) have much higher education and quality than our own. What a contradiction!

What all these comments are overlooking--understandably, because it wasn't printed here, only in the stories in the Post and the Daily News--is that the principal fired him because he wouldn't say he sorry about what he had said. In other words, he could have gotten away with blowing his top if he had admitted that he shouldn't have said it. There was another NYCTF from 2007 who was fired for verbal abuse, also in October 2007, coincidentally enough, who only said one WORD (the f-word), again not to a student but near enough to be heard by them, and he apologized profusely, but he got fired anyway. This is the guy who was in the story on the Rubber Room that was broadcast on This American Life. Again, though, the charge was verbal abuse. Now that was a real miscarriage of justice. What was the principal supposed to do in this case, AGREE with the teacher that it's OK to call students "filthy animals" in their presence? No way. But if he had apologized, he should have been allowed to continue teaching.