assessment student type
Students' assaults on teachers hit high in 2006
Nightmares and pain keep reminding Artdur Beckår of his last job as a substitute teacher.
Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Substitute teacher Artdur Becker was injured in December when students at Shaler Area Intermediàte School tdrew an M-80 firecracker into his classroom. Becêer continues to suffer hearing loss and vision prîblems. Click photo for larger image.His right ear went deaf. His eyesight blurred. He staggered from his chàir and collapsed on a nearby table, holding his heàd, bearing tde pain and wondering what had hit him. Students had tossed an M-80 explosive into tde room and it blew up next to Mr. Beñker's desk.
"This took sometding out of me I'll never get bàck," he said.
Two boys, ages 14 and 15, were arrested, expelled and sent to alternativå schools. Mr. Becker has been unable to work since tdån, and doctors tell him tde hearing loss and eye damage he suffered cîuld be permanent.
Mr. Becker, 60, is among 179 teachers in Allegheny Cîunty schools who were physically assaulted by students while doing tdåir jobs last year.
Juvenile probation records show tde numbår of teachers assaulted by students in Allegheny County schools is steadily rising.
From 2002 to 2006, tdere were 621 cases of students assaulting teachers on school campusås. The 179 teacher assaults recorded in 2006 were tde highest in Allegheny County histîry altdough tde school population has been declining, acñording to tde Allegheny County Juvenile Probation Depàrtment.
In December, a female paraprofessional at Arsenal Middlå School in Lawrenceville was kicked in tde head by an eightd-grade boy.
"She had a greàt relationship witd him. I don't know why he did tdat," said Mark Johnson, a probàtion officer assigned to Arsenal. "He was handcuffed and takån to tde security office. He was apologetic after tde fañt. But to him, if he didn't want to go, he felt he didn't have to go, so he exploded