I was a student of Steven Clarke. He's a great teacher. Maybe, he just had enough.

My niece teaches at a NYC H.S. she say all

her students want from the school is to meet each other and date ,actually she used a stronger word.

Nice!

He probably told the truth all the schools

are not like Stuyvesant,Bronx HS of Science or the trendy new Millenium school.

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.

I remember taking the regents to get my High School Diploma back than ... do they still have that? Or did they dumb it enough for rtards to pass.

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!

First I would like to say that I believe that this teacher was in the wrong to say what he said in front of a student....alone with other teachers....ok.

My family is from Boston, but I was raised in the South. Down here it is a LOT different. You would NEVER disrespect a teacher or say anything like what this student said to the teacher. In the South, Corpral punishment is alive and well. I have seen a kid get spanked (with a huge paddle) for lying to his teacher about his homework!

To who ever said the student was poor and it's all the fault of that fact.....

We don't have goverment subsidised housing down here (unless your native american). We have lots of poor people, but these people are REALLY poor.

Not 'poor' as in I have a new pair of Nike's to wear to school and live in the projects poor.

I mean poor as in, the parents steal their kids donated winter jacket to go sell it to buy Meth. Poor as in, these kids eat their only two meals at school (breakfast and lunch).

Poor as in, they live in burned down houses or gutted out trailers because the family has no money, don't work and both parents are addicted to Meth.

Poor as in, the kids don't get medical attention (free or otherwise) when they are sick.

We have WIC (for single moms) and food stamps, but we don't have goverment housing (unless you are native american). The South doesn't 'coddle' their poor like other states do...it's pretty tough down here to live if you don't have a job, or an education.

I was lucky to come from a good family that had money and I was able to experience a lot of wonderful things before I was 18. It is a shame that the parents aren't doing more to be parents.

This is the fault of the parents (or lack there of...) to raise their children to respect teachers and people in positions of authority.

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.

Amen #52, 62

Part of the issue, disdain for the job and clientele,the other part of the issue, lack of training in adolescent psychology; most teenagers are obnoxious at least some of the time, if not all the time.

For those who feel they are too good or well educated to be public school teachers, get a job elsewhere, maybe even wall st and let us know how well that works out.

In this case, the city was absolutely right to fire this jerk, if you disrespect the customer you should be fired. What does this guy think everyone does at bars after work, gripe about clients, boss, work load, etc.

He just got a hard and fast lesson about life that his hard won education did not teach him.

BTW- snoopy- you "friend of color" probably uses all caps because you have a thick skull and it takes a lot to get through to you.

"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.

Also, Snoopy said "There are so few teachers of color in the city it doesn't count." Blatantly false. At my last school, the entire administration was black and the majority of the faculty was either black or hispanic. At the school I work in now, there are more white teachers but still a representation of minorities.

A reminder also that it's not a race thing. The minority kids I went to high school with (in Queens) would never have said anything like that. It's a class/ societal thing. Our classes tend to be drawn along racial lines, but the issue is really socioeconomic, not racial.

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.

All of you are racist.

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

BLAME THE PARENTS

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.

For every white teacher that takes this shit from people of color students, I would like to know how many teachers of color take that kind of shit from a white student.

Oh I know the answer. There are so few teachers of color in the city so it doesn't count.

A friend of mine "of color" who I did baseball coaching with is a guidance counselor for one of those inner city schools and when he emails me IT'S ALL IN CAPS! Just great.

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.

There was a Shanghaist story about a teacher in China who beat a student senseless and then threw her out of a four story window to her death in front of her classmates. By that standard, he should get a free dinner for two coupon.

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

How so?

He's right about the kids. But you can't say it in front of them, you have to show decorum. Guy probably snapped, he should be given another chance.