The bane of all teachers

I remember the day when, if you wanted to cheat, you had to write your answers on a leetle leetle piece of paper and stuff it in your pencil case. Cheat sheets made way for electronic devices, ranging from pagers, walkmans, mp3 palyers and now cellphones.

As a teacher, I don't mind if a student has these items as long as they do not use them in class or as long as they ask my permission. Case in point, one of my leadership students filmed me just chilling at my desk in class and added it to his clip montage on his hi5 or myspace page, I forget which one. Nothing incriminating, nothing tasteless, just a few seconds worth of Miss Alarie.

If a student dared film me without my consent...well, let's just say no one in their right mind at Beurling, unless of course they are new to the school, would try such a prank, because they know they don't fuck around with Miss Alarie (pardon the language). Want a 30 minute rant? Piss off Miss Alarie. Want to be banned from any possible outing and activity? Act like a twit. Want your higschool experience to be as enjoyable as a root canal? Go ahead, be all the moron you want to be.

Let's be clear, I am not saying that I am the ultimate disciplinarian at school nor do I hold all the power over students. Sheesh, that's Mrs. Harvey's claim to fame. She's awesome. She says jump and you ask (as a student) over which building, Mrs. Harvey?

So, to make all this rambling coherent, I am not at all shocked to see 2 students suspended after filiming their teacher. This was done without his knowledge and after the students harassed him at a restaurant. What? Did they think they were going to get away with it? I hope there are criminal charges because (and crap am I going to sound old saying this) kids these days think they are untouchable. Sorry to burst your bubble kids, but Eliott Ness, you ain't...