Saturday, February 11, 2012

The Wheels On The Bus

 

Teacher Accused of Spraying Febreze on "Fishy" Student

Mother received written apology.

By DANIEL MACHT


|  Thursday, Feb 9, 2012  |  Updated 3:00 PM EST






A puffin and a capelin



“This time the teacher got a time out.

An elementary school teacher in Newfoundland, Canada has reportedly been put on paid leave as district officials investigate a claim she sprayed a student with an odor eliminator to mask his fishy-smelling lunch.

Patti Rideout told CBC News she was “very hurt and very angry” after learning the teacher of her 10-year-old son, Christian Roberts, had put him in the hallway then sprayed him with Febreze last week.

Other kids at Twillingate Island Elementary School had teased him over the fried capelin meal she’d made him, she said.







10 Icelandic Krona is worth $.08 USD (i.e., 2 cents per capelin)




"I feel like he's been embarrassed, bullied, and I think what she [did] was very disgraceful," Rideout told CBC News. "I think my son was treated not like a human being — I think he was treated like a dog, or a cat … I'm very hurt and very angry over this."

Rideout told CBC that when she first called her son’s teacher for an apology she hung up.

After taking her concerns to the school board, Rideout received a written apology from the school’s principal and vice principal, St. John’s newspaper The Telegram reported.

“The teacher has offered to make an apology to your son in front of the class,” the letter said.”


NOTE

To me, this is another significant sign of things becoming unglued, the wheels coming off the bus.  SO inappropriate, SO unprofessional, SO unkind.  It sounds as though Mrs. Rideout prepared an excellent lunch for her son Christian.

I never knew what capelin were until this reading this, but now that I do I imagine I’d like them.  I’ve always liked “fishy” fish like smelt and my doctor has recommended that I eat them regularly.  (And apparently capelin roe is also very good.) 

We use Febreze at home.  It’s an excellent product, but not for the purposes described in the article.

Horrible harpy martinet anonymous teacher-person. The article should have identified her by name so that we can all avoid her.







I’m sorry to see Febreze dragged into this.

4 comments:

  1. Yes, Poor Christian. But, as you mentioned, I'm sure he had a delicious lunch.

    When I think of Newfoundland (a place I've never visited), I think of The Shipping News, and - among other things - the NewfoundLANDers eating seal flipper pies. Apart from the seal flipper pies (which don't appeal to me....just the name alone..), Newfoundland seems like a magical place. Would love to visit.

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  2. I would also love to visit Newfoundland. A lot. Whenever I've crossed it in an airplane it captures my imagination. Caroline's been to Nova Scotia (when she was a teenager) and said it was great. As I said, I think I would like capelin. There isn't a great deal I don't like (which doesn't mean that there aren't things I don't eat for other reasons), but I wouldn't touch seal flipper pie. There's a lot of whale and seal eating in Jules Verne's extraordinary The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, but the characters, who are participants in an increasingly hopeless attempt to locate and reach the North Pole, aren't really happy about it. Verne's descriptions are unforgettable. Curtis

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  3. if you stink you deserve to be sprayed with febreze

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  4. Superchick: You're entitled to your opinion, obviously, and possibly the teacher should be commended for devising a new, less brutal variation of corporal punishment, but I think it's more likely that she put her forward career path and possibly even her pension in jeopardy. If she was that sensitive to the smell of capelin, she should have phoned Christian's mother. As my daughter would say, "just sayin'". Thanks for reading this and writing. Have a lovely Sunday. Curtis

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