Dori: Was white Van Asselt teacher right to call 911 on black student?

This is one I would love to get your opinion on. Audio from 911 was just released from an incident at Van Asselt Elementary in South Beacon Hill, in which a 27-year-old white teacher said that a black student threatened her.

According to the Van Asselt teacher’s words in the 911 call, the student told the teacher that he didn’t care if she was a woman, he would “beat the [expletive] out of her.” She was so frightened that she called 911.

For Racial Justice in Seattle Schools posted this audio on their Facebook page. The president of the Seattle Council PTSA told The Seattle Times that this phone call was part of the “school-to-prison pipeline” that black Americans are trapped in.

The Seattle Public Schools are doing all the politically correct things now, talking about racial bias in schools and de-escalation techniques in workshops.

City of Kirkland employees shouldn’t undergo bias training

The question I’m posing is, was this an appropriate 911 call? Or, does the teacher just need to be tougher on misbehaving students?

Anyone coming toward you, regardless of age, and saying they will beat you up, is a threat. Should teachers not be allowed to call 911?

Is this an example of racial bias? We do not know what was in this teacher’s head and heart. What if a white kid had threatened to beat her up? Would she also have called 911? We don’t know.

Does size matter? A lot of people are talking about the kid being 4-foot-11, saying he was too short to be a real threat. I don’t know how tall the teacher is.

I don’t think teachers should be banned from calling 911. The teacher didn’t press charges because she was apparently afraid of repercussions from the school district, though it looks like she’ll be facing those anyway now that this has gone public.

There is another very important question to come out of this that nobody is asking. Of course, I will be the one to ask it. Should this kid be disciplined? Was he already disciplined? And more importantly, what is going on in this kid’s life if he truly did use those strong words against his teacher, if he really did threaten violence against a woman? How active are his parents in his life?

Honestly, there are not a lot of fifth-graders who act like that. Maybe that is organic. But maybe it is also learned behavior.

I’d love to hear your thoughts from any angle. Is this an example of racial bias? Should the teacher have not called 911? Let me know.

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