In a bizarre incident in a San Diego Middle School, nine students were suspended in May for watching porn and masturbating in their English class in plain sight of their classmates. Their teacher is under fire for not disciplining the nine when notified of the incident.
By: A.J. Niles
Students at a San Diego Middle School English class were upset and disgusted when they discovered nine of their classmates masturbating in front of them and the teacher. The Bell Middle School teacher, Ed Johnson, did nothing about the incident when told by his other students of the indiscretion occurring. The nine students were eventually suspended when Bell Middle School Officials caught wind of the incident.
According to the Union-Times San Diego,
…staff emails exchanged Friday between teachers and administrators at Bell Middle School, the school and district’s response to the incident is causing division.
Theater teacher Hale Maher wrote [in an email], ‘I have had my students come up to me and ask horrible questions about what happened… Our job is to protect children. This issue is dividing our faculty. Many of us are outraged yet we keep silent.’
School officials reviewed statements written by 22 students in the seventh-grade, an all-boys English class.
The statements tell of a group of boys that sat at their desks viewing pornography on their cell phones and masturbating while the teacher sat at his desk.
Many of the students raised their hands to let Mr. Johnson know what was going on, and nothing was done, according to the written statements and one student interviewed by school officials.
The student tells officials,
The teacher said he would give the students referrals to the office if he caught them, before returning to a book he was reading at his desk. The student said everything was in plain view, had the teacher glanced in the direction of the activity.
“They weren’t even trying to hide it at all. It really made me and the other students mad that he wouldn’t do anything about the things happening in the class and it was affecting our education and it was nasty, also.”
Mr. Johnson is still employed at Bell Middle School despite being under scrutiny for the lack of discipline of the students during the incident.
This is just sick. We really have to do a better job raising our kids.