MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Threatened and afraid for her safety. That’s how a Memphis teacher says she feels after she says a parent threatened her.
She says she taught at Whitney Elementary, an Achievement School in Frayser, but is no longer going to work because she didn’t feel safe.
The teacher of more than 10 years is speaking out.
“This is ridiculous and it’s not safe. It’s not safe for the children, it’s not safe for the employees. It’s just not safe, it’s not a safe environment and something needs to happen,” she said.
She does not want to reveal her name or show her face but did say she hasn’t taught at Whitney Elementary since February 3.
“Right now I’m just in limbo. They haven’t sent me any papers saying you’re fired. I haven’t sent them anything saying I resigned,” she said.
A police report shows officers were called to Whitney Elementary back on February 3. This teacher told officers the mother of a student threatened to hurt her.
The teacher says the student wasn’t even in her class but was keeping some things there. The woman explained to the student’s mother what was going on, but she claims the mother became irate and threatened her.
“I said excuse me are you threatening me? I don’t make threats I make promises.”
This teacher says this isn’t the first time that parent or another parent has threatened her. She said she asked the school for help but nothing was ever really done.
She says she reached out to WREG after seeing State Rep. John DeBerry discussing the Teachers’ Bill of Rights, a bill currently being discussed by Tennessee lawmakers to give teachers some support.
“We know that there are teachers under siege in their classroom, we know that in their best efforts there are those who do not respect them, so we can’t just stick our head in the sand and pretend it’s not happening,” said DeBerry.
A spokesperson with the Achievement School District says this is the first time they heard about that parent threatening the teacher.
The parent has been banned from campus., the protocol has been reviewed and they did not see any issues with how the situation was handled.
