Let this be a Lesson for Teachers… Get it? LESSON?
Everybody and their mother plays Fortnite. People of all ages and professions play it. Even the most uncool adults ever known as teachers. Early last month, Brett Belsky a Phys. Ed teacher in Brooklyn got into some trouble for playing Fortnite with his students. He made a deal with these two students, aged 11 and 12, to play Fortnite with him. In exchange, the students would “pay attention and do well in class”. He held up his end of the bargain, which got this middle school teacher fired.
Before the game, these two students needed to get permission from their parents, but one of the students did not inform their parents until after the game. The father of this student was shocked by the fully grown man playing an online game with his child and told the principle of the school. This led to an investigation by the Department of Education and Belsky was fired. Belsky was found to have been given three disciplinary letters unrelated to this game of Fortnite. The first letter for “spinning a girl” in one of his Phys. Ed class, the second for accepting a hug from a student, and a third for saying he wanted to “adopt” a student. Belsky is suing the Department of Education for wrongly firing him.
As a qualified teacher, I got something to say about this. Teacher 101 is do not do anything with a student outside of the school that is not related to teaching them. Do not add them on Facebook, do not exchange phone numbers, do not have lunch with them on the weekend, do not exist outside of school. I know it seems kind of strict, but even when you are not teaching, you are still a teacher and interacting with a child, especially without the supervision of their parents or guardians, is a HUGE no-no. When you break it down, he was just playing a kid’s video game with kids. It seems innocent and there was no inappropriate motive, but this is the most basic of basics in education.
What’s your take on this? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: New York Post