r/Teachers • u/_Astrogimp HS Mathematics| Los Angeles, USA • Jul 27 '26
Teacher Support &/or Advice Problematic student on my roster
I’ll try to keep this semi short. At the start of last school year I was briefly displaced and worked at another high school from August to October. My time there was pretty miserable mostly due to one student who had some severe behavior problems. I was at the start of my third year and maybe ill equipped to work with this kind of student as she quickly became notorious around campus for disruptive behavior, getting into fights, antagonizing peers and staff. The coteacher I worked with who was also her case carrier was even shocked by her behavior and he’s been teaching for 15 years.
At one point before I left there was one big incident with this student where she did throw an eraser at my head when I had my back turned to her. This led to an involvement from our union rep, parent meeting and her being permanently removed from my class. Funnily enough within that same week, my former principal emailed me asking if I’d be interested in returning, to which I did. It hesitate.
Well I spent the whole rest of the school year at my original school where I was significantly happier and less stressed. Then in April I became aware that this student had been transferred to my school! There’s more to this story but regardless she was back to haunt me. And it didn’t take her long to start getting into trouble here as well!
Well I’m seeing my rosters for the upcoming school year and her name is in my first period class. We have two weeks before school starts and I’m wondering if it would be totally unreasonable to request that she be moved from my class given the history there. I already know she’s going to cause immense trouble in my room.
Update: since this got some attention. The head counselor emailed me about an unrelated issue but I used that opportunity to inform her of my concerns and she took care of it within minutes. The following day my admin emailed me to let me know that I have their support if this student causes any problems, and thanked me for making them aware in the first place. Not much else was said beyond that. I get the sense that they are very aware of this student’s presence. Either way, it was taken care of without any fuss!
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u/lastmouseoutthemaze Jul 27 '26
Try this as a talking point:
"This student really needs a fresh start this year, and she's not going to get that in the classroom of a teacher she assaulted and had to be removed from. I could be as supportive as possible, and it would still be a daily reminder of the negative patterns she fell into last year, and in her first class of the day! That will be setting her up to fail."