The Texas teacher who allegedly made kindergartners beat up a bully

A kindergarten teacher in suburban San Antonio allegedly had her students line up to hit a kid accused of bullying. Is there any way her actions were justified?

Students at Valley Elementary School in Bensalem, Pa., walk past a banner explaining the school's anti-bullying program: Two teachers at a San Antonio elementary school have received discipli
(Image credit: AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

A school district in suburban San Antonio, Texas, has dismissed one kindergarten teacher and suspended another for an unusual plan to fight bullying: According to a police report, a young teacher at Salinas Elementary School approached an older colleague for help dealing with "a bully in her classroom," named Aiden Neely. The older teacher had Neely, 6, come into her classroom, where she allegedly sat him down, lined up her kindergarten class, and had them smack Neely one-by-one to "teach him why bullying is bad," while she instructed the kids to "Hit him!" and "Hit him harder!" Neely's teacher stepped in after one child landed a particularly hard blow, then reported the incident two weeks later. Neely's mom, Amy, told local TV stations the school had never contacted her about behavioral issues, that her son is not a problem child, and that she wants the older teacher barred from teaching anywhere ever again. Neither teacher has been identified. Even with the dangers of bullying being a high-profile topic in education, could this be labeled as anything but a bad idea?

This is all sorts of wrong: Nobody likes a bully, and "there's no doubt a 6-year-old is capable of being cruel and awful," says Meredith Carroll at Babble, but the answer to bullying is not more bullying, especially if the second bully is a teacher. The police and Amy Neely both say that some of the kindergartners didn't want to participate, but were too scared to disobey. Firing that teacher is the least the school can do. She'll be lucky to avoid criminal charges.

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