Elementary School Children Forced to Yell Vulgarities at a Life-Size Paper Man, While Ripping Him to Shreds––in the Classroom.
Click here for the findings of Manchester Superintendent Debra Livingston’s investigation. ~Publis
Article has been updated after receiving additional details from Ms Auger, the Assistant Principle at Hallsville School.
The details of what happened to the young children of Hallsville Elementary School on April 15, 2015, has some parents shocked to the point of taking their children out of the public school system completely, and left the assistant principle, Ms Auger, cold with dread and a sincere disbelief that this could happen in her school.
When confronted by the parents of one of the students involved, the teacher of said student, Mr Ryder, confirmed that the events did happen exactly as the student claimed and that he could not stop it since the principle of the school, Ms Christi Michaud, had ordered it to happen, making it something that he had no choice but to go along with. Ryder claims it was completely out of his control, though he had a smug look on his face and smiled a lot while he told the story.
According to students, and confirmed by at least one teacher, these are the events that took place in Mr Ryder’s 4th grade classroom on April 15, 2015, at approximately 12:30 pm:
It was right after lunch. The children were settling into the seats, preparing for the rest of the school day activities, when a stranger enters the room. The students have never met or seen this women before, but the teacher welcomed her in. Her name was Laurie Evens, and she was from Webster Guidance. Her purpose was to teach a lesson on bullying. The woman proceeded to setup her display: a life-size paper man that she taped to the wall, a small blue basket, and a handful of paper clippings.
The woman passed out the small pieces of paper to the class and told the young children that they had to write down a swear word (or phrase). It had to be a swear and it had to be something that someone has said to them in the past. She then collected the pieces of paper from the students into her blue basket and mixed them up.
“Now, I’m going to pick one of you, and when I pick you, you will have to come take a slip of paper from the basket.” She told the children that they had to read whatever was written on the paper out loud, so the entire class could hear. “Say it like you mean it,” she declared. The children had to yell the vulgarities at the life-size paper man. The woman then instructed the children to rip a piece of the paper man off: like his hand, his finger, an ear, etc… She then proceeded to demonstrate by pulling a piece of paper out of the basket, shouted the phrase at the paper man, and ripped off one of his fingers. She then turned to the class and picked the first child to get up to do the same.
Many of the children protested, saying that they did not want to read the swears (such as “F#@K YOU!”, “You Gay Whore!”, and “You F@#KER!”) out loud. But they were told that they had to do it. The only option those kids were given was to pick a different paper, but they had to do it. They were not given the option to just sit down and not participate.
After all of the children had yelled vulgarities at the paper man and had ripped the man to pieces (only his head was left stuck to the wall), the woman then told the children that they had to go back up, in the same order that they went to swear at the paper man, and tape the pieces they had ripped off back on and then apologize for what they had said. When the children had finished taping the paper man back together, it looked a mess (as one might expect). It wasn’t even recognizable.
The moral of the story, according to the stranger that visited the class that day, was that when you swear at someone, that person can never be put back together again.
The stranger left the class, leaving the frankenstein’s monster of a paper man taped to the wall for the children to look at the rest of the day.
The 4th grade teacher, Mr Ryder, was very pleased with the lesson and expressed is pleasure to his young impressionable students before moving on to another lesson.
“I think the thing that upsets me the most,” one parent explains, “is that we were not told ahead of time that this type of lesson was going to be taught to our kids. I would have kept my son home that day.”
A grassroots parents movement to have the principle, Ms Christi Michaud, fired from her position at Hallsville Elementary School (or at least stiffly reprimanded) has begun in full force and a petition that will be sent to the Superintendent of Schools for Manchester, NH has been started and can be found and signed at:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fire-christi-michaud
This article was submitted by Keith Katsikas, parent of a student in the 4th grade class that was subjected to this “lesson.”
This is unacceptable, I have a 8 year old in the school system at Webster. I have sent a request to Dr. Livingston to understand more. Was this a grass roots effort or endorsed by the city? What is being done about it? Has this already occurred at Webster before it was taken on the road?
We are investigating these very questions and will be sure to let everybody know what we know when we know it! Thank you for your interest and comment.
These students were NOT forced to write swears. They could write any hurtful phrase “dumb” “jerk”
“Idiot” not one student said they didnt want to swear and were forced to anyway. I have a 4th grader and talked to several students that said it didn’t happen that way at all. The paper man lesson is a common & affective way to teach the result of bullying. Get your facts straight before posting an article from a man that has made it VERY clear that he has a problem with our school principal for other personal
Reasons. He has his own agenda. Mrs. Michaud has had a good and successful first year as Principal at Hallsville.
I’ve never known 10 year olds who would stand up in a classroom and refuse to do anything the teacher says they have to. There are adults who would have gone along with this even if it made them uncomfortable because our society teaches us to not rock the boat. This should never have been done without a meeting or notification to parents…….
The article states that the children were forced to yell vulgarities. The students were told to write down insults, something hurtful that someone has said to them, and that if it contained swears then that was all right. The children were also told that they HAD to participate. They could NOT just sit down. Even if they could just sit down, they still had to be there to experience the vulgarity that came out of several of the kids mouths. Several children said they did not want to say the swears, and were told to take a different piece of paper, or just omit part of the word. They still had to see it, read it, and say some version of the word. Many kids did in fact say the entire phrases out loud and it was encouraged. Never did the instructor or the teacher stop the children from saying these vulgarities in the classroom. My information comes from extremely reliable sources, including the teacher of the class in question, who confirmed with the assistant principal as a witness, that the claims found in this article are indeed the truth.
I would enjoy reading more about this situation, perhaps with less dramatic liberties taken by the author.
Christi Michaud is a thoughtful and responsible Principal to our school, and I have no doubt the lesson provided by Laurie Evans from Webster Schools Guidance Department to Mr. Ryder’s Fourth Grade Class was appropriate. Thank you all for your efforts with our children!
My wife just found this, with backs up the experience my son had at Hallsville Elementary School. http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/03/lp294-03.shtml
Principal, not principle.
Nitpicking. It’s the message that’s important not a small typo.
I would like to point out that I have made some updates to my original article based on information that I have uncovered during the course of my own personal investigation. The root of the case remains the same, however there have been some added details and a couple of clarifications.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/keith-a-katsikas-jr/elementary-school-children-forced-to-yell-vulgarities-at-a-life-size-paper-man-w/10152812702652469?pnref=story
Be a man and retract your article and issue a public apology. You felt the need to publicly humiliate and defamate the character of Mrs. Michaud. A real man would take ownership and apologize publicly. I guess we will find out, huh?
This parent is evil and won’t stop until he gets what he wants regardless of who he has to ruin to do so. Disgraceful.