Published: May 25, 2008 01:25 am            

NEW ALBANY: Tape reveals teacher’s verbal abuse

Sitting at the computer with his friend, 5-year-old Gabriel Ross played and smiled.

When it came time for him to talk about his experience in kindergarten at S. Ellen Jones Elementary, his demeanor changed to reserved and frowning.

“She was mean,” Ross said. “She called me ignorant.”

Though he doesn’t know what the word means, other things she said did get through — such as a word that he said was too bad to say aloud, so he whispered it.

“She called me stupid,” he whispered.

For months, Ross complained to his family about his teacher, Kristen Woodward. They thought he was exaggerating. Then they said his behavior at home changed for the worse and they started to wonder if he was acting out to avoid going to school.

So, they hid a tape recorder in his cargo pants pocket and sent him off to school.

His mom called the recording, “shocking.”

On the recording — which was provided to The Evening News and The Tribune — along with a transcript, two women can be heard, one talking more than the other.

One told Ross he was being pathetic. It sounds as if the same woman is the one who lists off teachers and other school employees by name, saying he had tormented and tortured each of them all school year. That’s when Ross can be heard crying.

She goes on to say she’s “done” with him and that he’s been “ignorant, selfish, self-absorbed, the whole thing.”

He continues to cry.

When a student comes to find out what’s wrong, that woman announces to the class the behavior problems Ross has and said, “if you want to act like him, then go ahead and be his friend ... So, you guys think is that somebody you want to be with?”

The class answered in unison, “No.”

Carol Mooney, with the Indiana State Teachers Association, said Woodward admits to losing her cool on that day and saying, “You’re being pathetic” to

Ross. Mooney said since there are two women in the room, it’s hard to tell who said what.

Nonetheless, Woodward is suspended indefinitely, after teaching for 13 years, according to an association advisory.

Mooney said the school administration’s actions were unfair. She said the incident happened in mid-April and Woodward was suspended in early May. She said the administration asked Woodward very little questions and did not give her a chance to tell her side of the story.

“She was suspended from teaching before anyone asked her what happened in the classroom,” Mooney said. “They just suspended her.”

Mooney said the teacher is well liked by co-workers, parents and students. She said the teacher had trouble with Ross from the beginning of the school year, and let her frustrations out as heard on the tape.

“What do you say to a kid who’s rolling around, punching, biting, kicking? What can a teacher do?” Mooney asked.

She said New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. should have offered solutions as to how to handle Ross in the classroom, such as providing another teacher’s assistant.

Woodward — who already was planning on moving to Pennsylvania this summer — told Mooney that this situation taught her a lesson: To never teach in a public school again. Mooney said Woodward will consider teaching at a private school with hopes that things will be handled differently.

“In NA-FC, when teachers are suspended, we hear nothing for weeks on end. We get no answer. We get nothing. It just drags and drags,” Mooney said. “(The suspended teachers) are embarrassed and humiliated. It’s not an easy situation to bear, especially when the school corporation tells you nothing, week after week.

“That’s not right.”

Mooney said the association has filed a grievance on Woodward’s behalf. She said she imagines it will take weeks to hear any results. Woodward and the school system declined to comment for this story, with the latter saying they could not talk about it since it is a personnel matter.

As for Ross, his family said they were told in the fall that he was having behavioral problems in class and that a behavioral program would be started. They said the school put him in counseling, but they had not heard anything since.

“If he’s being that bad, she should have called me and she never did that,” Ross’ mother, Tabitha McMahan, said. “I told her before that if he needed anything, we would work on it at home.”

Mooney denies that, saying Woodward and the school’s principal were in regular contact with the family.

After the incident, Ross’ family took him out of school. They plan to enroll him in the fall for first grade, but they aren’t sure where.

“I went to that school,” his grandmother, Donna McMahan, said in tears, adding that all her children went to

S. Ellen Jones. “I’ve done a lot for that school and I’ve done a lot for these kids.”

Since she just lives across the street, she’s spent many hours volunteering to help with the school’s various activities, she said.

“It really broke my heart,” she said. “I don’t know any teachers over there that were mean and would talk to a kid like that ever.”

Taking Ross out of school was a hard decision for the family.

“There was nothing we could do but get him out of there,” Donna said.

Even with Woodward suspended, they are wanting more done to keep this from happening to other children.

“We want it so that she’s not able to teach again anywhere until she gets help for her anger,” said J.R. Edwards, Ross’ stepfather.

Ross’ family is looking into whether they have a criminal or civil case against Woodward. Meanwhile, the one in the center of it all says he just isn’t ready to go back to school at all.

Edwards predicts that this will have a long-term effect on Ross.

“At this age, he’s a sponge. I know he’s going to pay a price for this for a long time,” he said.

        

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