Alphonso Lewis, a 56-year-old aide at PS 165 on 109th street, faces three charges for an alleged assault against a third grader at the school during recess.
A detective with the Special Victims Unit wrote that the “defendant grabbed informant by the arm, squeezed his arm, and pulled informant from the front of the line to the back of the line. I am further informed that informant sustained three (3) round bruises to his right upper arm and substantial pain as a result of the defendant’s conduct.”
ABC News talked to the boy’s mother, who described the incident.
[Her] son was talking when the [sic] Lewis pulled him out of the line, and she says he was too frightened at first to tell his mother.
“He said everybody, you know, goes through that,” she said. “‘He does it to all of us, and it’s OK.’ I’m like, ‘No it’s not OK. Nobody’s supposed to hurt you like that. That’s an assault.'”
Another parent told ABC she made a similar complaint about Lewis but nothing was done.
Lewis’ attorney could not immediately be reached for comment. He has been suspended without pay, the Department of Education told ABC.
His next court date is scheduled for June 28.
That a child would judge battery by an adult to be the norm (“He said everybody, you know, goes through that”) is the fault of the school as it reflects the school atmosphere. No matter how much school officials may deny that they “tolerate” child abuse by their staff (sexual, violent, verbal or emotional) this child’s statement exposes the de facto situation. Teaching children not to accept being violated and showing that the authorities will hear their complaints and will protect them should one of the most important components of education.
When I was a NYC Dept. of Ed. teacher, the standing rule was corporal punishment was permissible in only two instances: a) in a shop class, when a student’s behavior put him/herself or others at immediate risk of life or limb, and
b) in an emergency situation when a noisy or panicking child’s screaming was preventing others from hearing or heeding life-saving instructions from the responsible adults.
Even in those dire circumstances, the force had to be only the minimum necessary to alleviate the situation.
At no other time was an adult ever permitted to touch a child with intent to harm.
The current rules are as follows (from Regulations of the Chancellor (10/30/2014) No. A-420):
“Corporal punishment is defined as any act of physical force upon a pupil for the purpose of punishing that pupil.
Corporal punishment does not include the use of reasonable physical force for any of the following purposes:
• to protect oneself from physical injury;
• to protect another pupil or teacher or any other person from physical injury (e.g., breaking up a physical altercation without using excessive force);
• to protect the property of the school or of others; or
• to restrain or remove a pupil whose behavior is interfering with the orderly exercise and performance of school district functions, powers, or duties if the pupil refuses to comply with a request to refrain from further disruptive acts, and alternative procedures and methods that do not involve the use of physical force cannot be reasonably employed to achieve the purposes set forth above.”
There were teachers, almost always women, who told their students that they (the teachers) had absorbent shoulder pads into which the kids could cry if they needed friendly support, but that was the only exception to the no-touch rule that I ever saw.
There was one time when ninth graders ran to me for protection because one of their classmates was brandishing a knife in a threatening manner. My weapon was a powerful set of vocal cords which I used to full effect. The kid dropped the knife out of sheer terror for his life, but no adult touched him. (Security did eventually lead him away and he was appropriately disciplined afterward).
Bottom line: It would appear that Mr. Lewis acted inappropriately, and if the boy is to be believed, as acted this way at other times with the same class. I’d like to know what the follow-up will be, and I hope West Side Rag learns of it and informs us of the outcome as soon as it is made public.
Ah, the old dilemma: how are we to distinguish an abusive authority figure from one trying to maintain civility amongst rotten, misbehaving and uncivil youngsters? More facts, please.
To Myron Puller, MD in comment #1: how about we teach children to behave, listen to authority, observe the rules, so that we can have civilized classrooms and the students that ARE THERE TO LEARN, CAN LEARN?
When I was a kid, we AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS being grabbed by the arm or the ear by a teacher because we knew the last thing we could do is complain to our parents. Our parents would say “what did you do to have that happen”?
Today, it is the teacher’s who are under fire for trying to keep our classrooms civilized.
This is not to say that there are not abusive teachers who need to be thrown out onto the street, however. It is just to say that we, as a society, need to stop judging these and similar situations (like those involving the police) WITHOUT MORE FACTS.
We are not there, we don’t know what happened. We don’t know the people involved. We don’t know if the bruises were made by the teacher or made after by the student. We simply can’t judge from these shorts news stories what happened and what the details are.
When I was in junior high in Queens, there was a teacher who threw blackboard erasers at students who weren’t paying attention. No one ever thought to report the teacher…