commentary by Patrick H. Moore
We all know that being a teen is tough. You’re experiencing beaucoup physical and emotional changes and to make it worse you tend by be more self-conscious than you’ll be at any other time during your life. Therefore, you tend to spend an inordinate amount of time staring at yourself in the mirror questioning your features while striving to make your hair perfect.
This roughly describes the apparent feelings of an unidentified 14-year-old female student in Stockton, California in August. Isha Iran of Jezebel writes:
A physical education teacher in Stockton, California, has been charged with a misdemeanor corporal injury to a child after attempting to force a 14-year-old student into a pool by dragging her.
Any Graff of The Mommy Files explains why the student didn’t want to get into the pool:
The story goes that the unnamed student planned to attend a special event that night and had her hair done in the morning. She didn’t want to ruin her hairstyle by swimming during gym class and refused to jump into the water.
My first response to this is to attempt to put this in context. Suppose you’re an adult… No one and I mean no one is going to force you – whether by physical force or psychological coercion – to get into the pool against your will. In fact, if you’d just had your hair done for a special occasion, I can almost guarantee that you wouldn’t be at the pool in the first place. Hell no! Au contraire, you’d be carefully protecting your lovely hair so that it shines with a splendor all its own at the evening’s festivities.
So as you can see, our 14-year-old heroine was at a distinct disadvantage. She was a kid. Although she didn’t have to work for a living, she had to follow her P.E. teacher’s orders or RISK GETTING MARKED DOWN. Or at least that’s what one would suppose.
The P.E. teacher, a man named Danny Peterson, however, didn’t see it this way. Perhaps he thought for a moment that he was a police officer or a prison guard and that the child was a criminal thus behooving him to use violence to maintain order.
In any event, he grabbed the girl by the arms (and then later by the feet) and started dragging her across the cement apron toward the pool, his plan obviously being to toss her bodily into the water. The girl reacted with great displeasure screaming in protest, fully determined to not be tossed into the water. She kicks and screams and to make matters worse is deathly afraid that her top is going to come off. The P.E. teacher just keeps dragging even though it’s obvious that the child is not about to give up. This goes on for a very long 95 seconds, as recorded for posterity on another student’s phone.
Amy Graff writes with far more decorum and less heat than I am feeling:
Patterson was adamant that the student needed to participate and dragged her across the tile deck before forcing her into the water. Wearing only swim shorts and a bikini top, the girl kicks and screams while being pulled toward the pool and screams that her top is falling off. Another students hits the teacher with a kick board and another throws water.
In addition, based on the video, the remarkable thing is that one or possibly two other students come to the girl’s aid and – standing above her – wrap their ankles around her ankle/leg holding her there so that Peterson can’t make any headway in his moronic plan to toss her forcefully into the pool. At some point, however, the girl’s helpers peel off leaving only the girl struggling with all her might to resist Peterson.
This is something that would have warranted a failing participation grade for the day and an eye roll at worst. But instead of dealing with the situation like rational figure of authority in a high school setting, Danny Peterson used physical force, dragging her by her arms and feet in an attempt to get her into the water.
When Peterson’s misuse of authority was reported to the authorities, he was immediately put on paid leave for one month before being reassigned to another school. Now, however, since the misdemeanor charge was filed, he has once again been put on paid leave.
Stockton attorney, Gilbert Somera, who is representing the girl’s family stated with impeccable logic that by Peterson “should have punished the girl academically instead of resorting to physical force.”
“This isn’t a situation where she’s attacking a teacher, and he’s defending himself. When a woman or a 14-year-old girl says no, it means no,” Somera said.
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Considering the length and relative ferocity of the assault, I’m somewhat surprised Danny Peterson is only charged with a misdemeanor, and I suspect that it might possibly be a felony if it wasn’t for the fact he was a teacher. That being said, I’m aware that many will feel that the girl was unreasonable in refusing to get in the pool, but Peterson over-reacted in such a grotesque fashion that it suggests that he is the last person who should be put in any position of authority. He probably wouldn’t treat his dog as shabbily as he treated this child. Then again, he might.
Meanwhile, it’s heartening to see many of the students coming to the victim’s defense. I suspect most of them were shocked to see Peterson run amuck in such dramatic fashion.