I Don't Want Your Dirty, Smelly Children in MY Classroom!!

A pre-K teacher in Buffalo seems to have handled a delicate situation not so delicately. Parents of students at the Build Academy are outraged after the teacher sent a note home complaining that some of her students were wearing dirty clothes and smelling bad. "URGENT NOTICE!!!" the handwritten letter sent to all parents in the class read. After griping about the odor, the letter continued, "It is a health and safety concern. It also makes it difficult for me to be close to them or even want to touch them. Enough said."

What in the world was this teacher thinking when she decided to send out that letter?
A BIG STINK IN BUFFALO

I'm kind of on the fence with this situation. I do think the letter was poorly phrased (and agree about the enough said) - but she wrote it to all parents and didn't single out any specific children, which is a better way to do things in my book. I think those parents that doth protest too much may be the ones who need to take better care of their children. The teacher could have gone straight to child services and reported the situation. We also have no information on whether she spoke with the principal or other school officials before handling this in her own way. She may not have handled this in the best way, but I'm wondering how others would handle such a situation.

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Updated On: 11/26/13 at 02:58 PM

I guarantee you if she would have discussed this with her superiors that that letter would have never gone out. They would have come up with a more politically correct solution to address the problem. That letter was not only unprofessional but also disrespectful not only to the parents but to her students.

She should know better, she is an EDUCATOR. But it seems to me the only one who needs educating is the EDUCATOR.

Using a mass mailing to reach a specific few parents will only cause more of a problem. Now EVERYONE is aware of what could have been handled discretely with a few carefully delivered notes to the specific parents involved. No child need be singled out. The notes should go directly to the parents. By doing it this way, everyone will be trying to find/figure out who exactly she's referring to. This is bound to lead to the little stinkers being outed at some point now that such a big to do has been made of it.

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Updated On: 11/26/13 at 03:14 PM

As a teacher myself, I understand where she was coming from. I've dealt with students who are unkempt, smell bad, are dirty, etc. Generally speaking, though, we handle such kids by talking to the nurse. The nurse will then speak to the child and, if needed, call the parents at home.

What we don't know is whether or not the teacher tried this. She is a veteran teacher, it seems like standard practice would be to go through the building nurse. If she had done that and nothing was done, I could understand possibly taking the step of sending a letter home to the parents.

Of course, sending one home with all those incorrect uses of language doesn't win her any points...

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She handled the situation very poorly, but perhaps she was driven temporarily insane by the funk of children. It's possible. It's awful to have a smelly kid in your class. If they need help, you honestly don't want to go near them. I have never complained, though. You just push through the ick.

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This was clearly handled very, very poorly.

That said, I used to teach and did have some kids who had problems with odor. You have to be very careful how you handle it (unfortunately, one kid got picked on-and that was a problem). I think she could have addressed it better (how? I'm not sure. I had conferences with my teaching partner (we worked in pairs) and we both discussed the issue privately with the parents involved, so that it was not a public issue.)

To me, this shows that the teacher doesn't have things under control. Either that or she doesn't know her support systems in the school she's working in. One thing that I have learned from working as a TA in a pre school setting is this. That no matter what environment or age group your working in, when it comes to working with kids, there's a support system in place. And, that sometimes reporting bad news (like the kid smells, in this situation) should be told to the parents from someone who isn't with the kids every moment and who's job it is to be the "bad guy" sometimes.

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That "bad guy" is the nurse.

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HAHAHA, funny, scallion!

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Most parents nowadays are a@#holes. They got off easy. Her grammar sucks, but filthy kids are unacceptable.

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