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Whose side would you take in this one, the teachers or the students?
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/25372149/detail.html4th-Grade Girl: Teacher Threatened Me
Lake County Teacher Under Investigation After Outburst
POSTEd Tuesday, October 12, 2010
UPDATEd 11:38 am EDT October 13, 2010
MOUNT DORA, Fla. -- A Lake County elementary school teacher is under investigation after reprimanding a fourth-grade girl for calling him "teach."
Harold Nelson, 53, is accused of telling 9-year-old Triangle Elementary student Jamiel Bostic that she might leave "crying to her mother" because of her "disrespectful" comment, according to a Mount Dora police report.
"Every time I think about it, it makes me cry," said Jamiel, who added that she gets a lot of A's and loves going to school. She said she's afraid to go back to a tutoring program following the after-school confrontation with Nelson, who teaches math.Jamiel said the confrontation began after school on Friday when she said, "So what are we doing today, teach?"
"He reacted by turning around and was kind of fierce-looking. He said, 'If you call me 'teach' again, I'll have your head spinning until you're crying home to your mother,'"
Jamiel said.Her grandmother, Laverne Chisem, filed a report with the Mount Dora Police Department after learning about the encounter.
According to the police report, Nelson said he told her "the consequences could make her head swim" and that might leave her "crying to her mother."
Police do no plan to press charges.
Jamiel refuses to return to the tutoring program.
"It came to me as a threat," she said. "It came to me as a real threat."She also said she has no idea why saying "teach" would be disrespectful and it was only her first time in his Friday after-school class.Chisem said Nelson's explanation in a phone call to her husband made her even more uneasy.
"Mr. Nelson told him, 'Yes, I did say that, I was wrong. I should have said that in a respectful way, a different way.' Then he said that he had been in the Army and he was having flashbacks," said Chisem. "I don't think he needs to be teaching. You cannot threaten a child with those kind of words. I'm taking it as a threat. My baby's scared.
"A Lake County School District spokesman said the district's investigation could wrap up Wednesday after the other students in the class explain what they saw and heard.
"Mr. Nelson is an excellent teacher and he did not intend to threaten anyone," the district said.