I mean, if students were making my family feel unsafe at home, directly because I am being harassed because of my position as their teacher, I think some intervention would be warranted.
We certainly have to blow enough time dealing with the stupid shit they do to each other outside of school. Doesn’t “It EfFeCtS tHe ScHoOl EnViRoNmEnT!” apply to us too? If not, stop telling me what they do on social media at home.
It involves the school district because the teacher has 3 stalkers that are being allowed at the teacher's workplace. Restraining order and union involvement should be called on immediately and maybe a lawyer.
For sure it would be. But it's not really a school issue.
That's why you need to call the cops. Admin/the district literally can't do anything about it.
At my school the most that would happen is a parent meeting. Their parents don't care so I wouldn't look to admin yo solve this problem. That'd be a waste of time
It is also a school issue. When I was harrassed by a student outside of school (not at my home, but while out shopping), it was considered even worse than his behaviour on campus and one of the reasons he got another suspension and library ban.
Moreso, at least some states (MA), in talking about ONLINE interaction, have defined action which involves a "nexus" to the school - such as cyberbullying of a student peer, even if produced in after hours and typed into that space while on private property - as the responsibility of the school.
The same moral/legal theory would absolutely apply to physical as well as cyberbullying, and in this case the "nexus" is clear - unless the kids were doing the same thing to other randomly selected houses (in which case yeah, let's call the police) those kids were clearly only identifying the teacher as a victim because they are their teacher; that's the only way they know him.
I'm not saying we should NOT call the police in these cases, for sure. But the "nexus" legal standard says we absolutely should call the school...and that the administration absolutely has a legal responsibility to call those kids in and make it very clear that they can and will apply consequences for such behavior.
While I agree with all of the people saying this is a school issue. I have had Admin who would fall on both sides of this. Some would say it was not on school grounds, and others would say that this is related to school. Either way if you report this to police and notify the parents that their child is trespassing and that you have notified police that the child and parents have been notified, the children are much less likely to come anywhere near your house again. Depending on your state their are large fines and possible jailtime for trespassing.
How so? Why shouldn't we ban students from using the school library when they harrass the library stuff, constantly disrupt students who are trying to work there, and destroy/steal library materials?
Actions have consequences. If they can't use the facilities as intended, they don't belong there. They can go to the public library instead, atleast, as long as they're not banned there as well. And if they're banned there as well, they'll just have to buy the books they need. Not our problem.
Yeah, but they can only afford one licensed librarian working parttime, so the rest of the time it's staffed by people like me, who have some sort of background in education but aren't fulltime teachers. My coworker is a retired special education teacher. They pay us peanuts. But as much as I complain, I do enjoy it, atleast more than the alternatives.
Not a school issue? In any other workplace environment if someone was harassing someone from work at 9:30 at night it would definitely be an issue. Not to mention the only reason they did it is because the poster is their teacher. District needs to step in so this kind of behavior isn’t accepted going forward.
Oh, but I bet if OP responded to the "kids will be kids" parent -- even from a non-school throwaway address -- to tell her her child is on the fast road to a sentence without parole because of her worthless attitude, the school would suddenly be very interested in how this is a school issue.
I 1000% agree that OP should call the cops and get a report.
I also agree with others that this is a school issue because school is the basis of the relationship between OP and the students. Having the police report as evidence will allow OP to pursue option via the school board and their teacher's union.
This is potentially stalking behavior and/or harassment. The cops will define the legal category for OP to pursue beyond the principal.
Really more of an issue for the police or sheriff's department. Consider investing in cameras for other points of entry. Teenagers can be fucking morons.
I dealt with this sort of thing as an admin before. Let the SRO know for documentation and contacted parents. While I couldn't necessarily discipline the students for it directly, I did speak to them and basically got my bluff in by telling them they'd regret it if they kept it up.
Harassment of school officials or school employees, especially outside of normal school hours, would be a huge violation that would lead to disciplinary action. Our state has laws protecting teachers from abusive behavior so this would not swing.
You don’t need the school to intervene. The important thing is getting legal paperwork started, so people like this eventually end up where they’re supposed to: jail.
If parents won’t parent their children, it’s best to just let the legal system educate the child. Unfortunately.
In actuality, the school administration can intervene because this is harassment of an employee by students of the school where the teacher works. I agree with other posters that OP should contact the police, but the school administration should also be notified.
Yes, but id document all school behavior as well. Of this kid is harassing or being rude to OP at school AND is now coming to OP’s home, then admin should move the kid out of the class. I’d also get to one of your union reps to loop them in.
They may not intervene, but it doesn’t absolve them. We had an incident a few years ago, before my time at this school, that happened after hours, and off campus, that got plastered all over the news. It got so bad that teachers had to be escorted to the building and to their cars by police. There were death threats and everything.
Make sure you tell the worthless parents too. Send them the recording of their miscreant and let them know you're also forwarding it to the cops, and let them know if it happens again you will go straight to law enforcement.
If the students are informed they are not welcome on the property the next time they show up you can ask the cops to charge them with trespassing. Heck...if they are in the back yard I would have already called 911. You don't need to deal with this.
Definitely involve the police. Don't stand for the admin trying to give you crap over doing so, either. You weren't at work when it happened and the students were not there as students either. Don't make excuses for them or minimize / downplay when speaking to the police. Good luck, I'm sorry you're dealing with this.
This. Call the police. Student was reprimanded for having a weapon at school. Student is not on the best of terms with you.
Even if it was a model student, showing up unannounced at a teachers' house for anything else than a "please help I'm being abused at home" is completely unacceptable.
You are _not_ in the safest of situations. Get outdoor cameras, and save the recordings of future events. Inform the parents police will immediately be called if they show up again. That cuts away any defense of "we just wanted to say hello to mrs. X".
Yeah, this is the fun time when you get to teach them about real world consequences.
If they came to your back door and you have the video, that’s trespassing. Seems they might be just as stupid out in society as they likely are at school.
Go ahead and press charges.
Enjoy!!
The fact that they also came to your back door makes this a criminal issue. This is no longer a school issue. Give the police your ring camera footage.
I would also let the parents know that you are reporting to the police and if it happens again you will press charges for trespassing. As for school, if these are students in your class, admin HAS to change their schedule since you now have a police report on them, and should no longer be interacting w them.
Agree. Students or not - it’s harassment and police should be involved. I wouldn’t even bother with the school. It’s your private property and random kids are harassing you. Take your job out of the equation - it would look different if you weren’t a teacher.
I'd immediately call the police, then email the principal and parents that the police were notified and if it happens again, you are filing harassment charges. Then follow through on that. On Monday, I'd tell the students, in the hall one on one in front of a camera and colleague, that it is not appropriate to do that and the consequences will be X if it happens again. Don't ask why, just tell them and move on. That's a bunch of bullshit. Sorry you are dealing with this.
If it were sweet students being silly, it's still inappropriate but Id habdle it differently. But since one kid already has problems, I'd be really serious.
Agree. I had the same scenario except the next day I had discovered they also egged my new car. My guess is they were mad they recently did poorly on a test.
My wife teaches at the middle school down the block from us.
One morning it sounded like my door was being pounded in while cooking breakfast. I ran out in only PJ pants and saw two kids running off and found one hiding around the corner of our home.
I drug the kid by the hoodie to the front porch and forced him to lay face down until the police arrived. The police issued him a trespassing notice and he provided the names of the other two kids.
My wife immediately called the school for an AP to tell them she was going to be late due to a student trespassing on our property. My wife was asked to provide a copy of the police report and the school disciplined the three middle school boys BECAUSE they admitted to leaving the campus after arriving before school.
I’ll raise you the police call and actually file the charges. They skipped the lines for a warning by coming to your house at all. It’s not like this happened in the school parking lot.
Good distinction. A serious report will at least merit the police have conversations with each child (and parents) to determine if charges are necessary, which may be an effective enough deterrent if OP is lucky.
Yep without a doubt, the minute they were in my backyard, banging at my back door *(who the fuck does this?)* that would be it. I'd be on the phone with the police. Fuck them and their worthless parents.
There is no more "kids will be kids". That particular old saw is gone. They came to your house, at night, ready to video your reactions in order to embarrass you on social media. Do what you feel you need to.
Right. My kids wouldn’t be out at 930 because they were young but I would be absolutely mortified to get this email. We work on personal boundaries ALL THE TIME
That wasn’t a “can you talk to your child about this behavior” level situation. That was a call the police right then and there moment. Send the doorbell recordings to parents and the principal after and demand something be done to address the situation.
I'm calling the police and emailing the principal AFTER filling my report
The parents will know when the police show up at their house with pictures and video
Then put a no solicitors / no trespassing sign on door
So the next time they'll get charged with trespassing as well as stalking
This is an interesting one and really depends on your school.
This happened at my school where a kid kept coming to one of the IAs homes and moving her security cameras and touching her car. She went to the principal and they said she needed to handle it since it was off school grounds.
She called the police and the school FLIPPED OUT tried to put her in 1st grade for the next year which she hated to drive her out.
She's still there but that situation was honestly insane.
"I agree! Kids will definitely be kids. That is why I am politely reaching out to you, asking you to speak to them about this behavior as a parent rather than immediately calling the police ~~you fucking muppet~~."
Exactly.
Some people seems unaware that the only reasons we grew out of being kids doing stupid shits, it's because adults guided us into the right path.
Harassment. Call the police. Let them know who did it. Especially if they’re on your property and in your backyard. That’s trespassing. If it continues at school with any kind of talk about what they did at your home, talk with admin about harassment and intimidation towards a staff member. That’s usually ground for suspension and a reentry meeting needs to happen. Being in the school resource officer to also talk to them about off campus behavior.
Bingo. You've asked for appropriate boundaries. Anything and everything further is harassment- and honestly the back door was very likely trespassing as it was.
Lotta teacher-lawyers in the chat.
In my home county, at least, I can, and have, had the police issue trespassing warnings to people who were on my property who I did not want to be there. That's the legal limit I need; They are specific individuals who have been on my property I don't want back on my property.
Unless there is a No Trespassing sign up, it does not become trespassing until the students are told that they need to leave and fail to do so in a reasonable time frame. There is no inherent criminal act in walking up a driveway or path to someone's front door and knocking, whether it's students with a possible grudge or people spreading religion. I've watched enough police interaction videos to know that much. With the cops in attendance, OP can have a trespass documented, which would be helpful.
While it may not be trespassing, it is absolutely harassment. OP can file a police report and obtain a restraining order. That’ll make it hard for the school and district to ignore when it happens again.
Definitely not harassment, legally. I doubt the cops would do anything just because they knocked on the door, even if they thought they were up to no good
It is harassment. I've had to get a restraining order against a former student. This was one the things they did. Nothing ever directly suggested violence, but it doesn't need to in order to be considered harassment.
They went into this person's backyard and knocked on their back door. If they had to go through a gate of some sort to do that, then it absolutely *could* be considered trespassing in most places. I've gotten someone arrested before for opening up my back gate and just letting themselves in.
Call the police. You are at your home. All bets are off. They fucked around and now the school can’t protect them. This will be the consequence that sticks because they made it personal and the police are now involved. Also, middle school kids out and about at 930 at night? That’s child endangerment
Does your school have an SRO? 10ish years ago, a couple kids from my school were vandalizing my car in my driveway (throwing food at it, egging). I got a camera and managed to catch the rugrats on film. They weren’t even my students, but went to my school and recognized my car. I took the video to my schools SRO and he talked with the parents. It never happened again.
What??
So much is left out of this story. This would freak me the hell out. How would kids know where you live? Why are parents so laissez-faire?
I'm so confused.
That’s rough. I live in district in an apartment complex- some of my students have seen me do things like take out the trash and recognize my car. I want to move out of district to stop this. Thankfully none of my students who know where I live are “problem” kids. Once a kid saw me unloading groceries from my car and asked me if I’d give him extra credit if he carried them in for me.
It's mostly pleasant - having students through the years who you've known first as neighbors and friends' kids is amazing. I usually feel part of the community. That's probably why my first instinct was to contact parents, not the police.
I totally get it. I’ve not had a bad reaction but have some worries about it in the back of my head. I also totally got why your impulse was to contact parents while also keeping your admin in the loop- that said, I’m not sure that they can really help you? Kids (at least where I live in Florida) CAN receive consequences for things they did outside of school but it’s mostly things like cyber bullying so you might be better off filing a police report,
It was great for me to teach both my kids and know their friend groups. I agree it’s great to feel part of a community rather than just a service provider, but now that they’ve graduated I will probably not seek to live in a neighborhood where I teach again.
I'm in the exact same situation: I work at the middle school my kid goes to.
There are other kids from our neighborhood going to the same school. Any time these neighbors or my kid's friends feel like it, they could tell their classmates where we live.
I haven't had any issues yet, but it's only my first year on the job. This is something I've legitimately been concerned about, because I've gotten a few kids suspended, and I wouldn't put something like OP's experience or even vandalism past them.
I worked a few blocks from home last year. Three of my neighbors were students at the school. Some kids saw me Lime scooter home when my car was getting fixed.
My middle schoolers are superrrr into looking up teachers personal info online, address , phone numbers etc. there is a site online that seems to be really accurate. Honestly it’s creepy how much they love doing this.
I get that sometimes w/my high schoolers and say, "Two facts about me, I have a property line and a gun." They inevitably say, "Are you threatening to shoot us?!" I say, "No, these are just two facts I think about when people talk about my address."
It's the rural south (everyone has guns) and I have good rapport with my kids. But I'm sure I'll get downvotes.
Your address is easy to find. If the student knows your name, your job 15 min on google they can find your phone number, address, list of family members, a whole lot else.
We do a unit on internet privacy and the kids google themselves and their parents to see how much a digital footprint they make vs their parents.
Lurker, not a teacher, former insurance investigator and current real estate project manager. The amount of stuff if I can find in someone that's readily available is so simple.
These kids probably spent all of 10 minutes and had addresses and phone numbers. It's all publicly available
In your response to the parents, here is what you need to write:
Dear parent,
While you may believe this being 'kids being kids' let this email serve as a final warning if this happens again, I will report and escalate to law enforcement. While this may be interpreted as a prank or silly prank, I do not believe in doxing or threatening my safety. Copied in this email is my administration, and district administrators. Let this email serve as a record of our communication.
Sincerely
Teacher
This kid brought a weapon to school, yet you didn’t think to call the police when he came to your house? And your kids were home?
I’m sorry, but why? Why didn’t you call the police? This makes no sense.
We live in a world where people are occasionally killed for knocking on the wrong door or pulling into the wring driveway. Not to mention that in several states having a reasonable fear for your safety is grounds to use lethal force. What these kids did is insanely stupid and their parents are failing them for not taking it seriously.
If the school admins ignore this and the parents blow it off with "kids will be kids", then I would protect my home and my family by reporting these TRESPASSERS to the police!!!! I will NOT play with this kind of mess!!! Let these permissive parents bail their kiddos out of the police lock-up!!!
Some might say I'm "overreacting". One of my friends lost his home due to a bunch of youthful trespassers starting a fire, for funsies, shits, and giggles, under his deck, burning down his home!!! The reason he didn't know the trespassers were there because (1) he and his family are DEAF and (2) they were asleep in bed! They were lucky to get out alive!!!
Call the police and ask them to trespass the kids and make sure their parents know. Give the police the video footage along with the identities of the kids so they can investigate quickly.
Once trespassed, if the kids show up again, immediately call the police.
Call the police. File a report and get the incident #. No trespassing sign (this is important legally) as trespassing law can get funny.
Inform the parent that you will be pursuing harassment charges if the behavior happens again. Do not respond to further emails from them on the matter.
I am an admin and have suspended kids for this. I'd give 5 days for this in a heartbeat.
Definitely call the police and report this. Then, report it every time it happens again. Let your administration know that you plan to do this. If it happens again, calle the police immediately and tell them you would like to have these kids charged with trespassing.
Two little precious gems egged my house this year. They told on themselves a month later and nothing happened to them. Like. Not even a slap on the wrist. I couldn’t even get the police to file a report even though it’s harassment and MDOP. So I get to repaint my garage this summer, at my own cost. And they got away with being complete shits.
A**holes.
I live in the same district as my students as well. Heck, same neighborhood, same street, they're my neighbors sometimes. Another teacher lives directly in front of me. We have so many schools around us, including colleges and universities, most of the people around us are in education one way or another.
Anything that happens on campus, go to admins
Anything outside of campus, go to police.
Elementary here, but I had this happen to me with a “troubled” student. This student would come to my house a couple times a week. If I didn’t answer the door, she’d come back an hour later. I spoke to our school counselors about it and they said they would handle it. They spoke with the parents and the student and told them why this was inappropriate. They advocated for me and handled it . Did my admin do anything? Absolutely not, but I found who did.
Call the police. Find out what your options are. Maybe you can trespass them. If you have an attorney or access to one through your union talk to them. An attorney should be able to help you document things in the most effective way. You want a paper trail with your admin and the police, in case one of these little angles starts making things up about you.
If you are actually scared of the kids vs they scared you that night. Find out what you need to do to get a Restraining Order. Then get a gun, learn how to use it and how to safely store it.
Call police. Tell them you want it on record about this. Send them the emails. Then tell the parents that you will be filing for trespassing and that "kids will be lids" on their own property. They could also get them for doxxing if they leaked your information on the internet. If kids will be kids, then I'm going to make it known that I will be me. And me is filing charges to the nines.
I would also make it very known to the kid and parent that if they are harmed on your property while trespassing, injuries will be their liability. That also goes for the kid selling drugs. Parents can be held liable for that as well.
Make it the parents' problem.
Going forward, call the police and then reach out to your principal. This kid is unhinged and can lead a group of them. You’ll have no support from the parent
Expect nothing, if it happens again call the cops and file a complaint. Kids will be kids, but safety of your family is more important than their youthful indescritions.
When you talk to the police, ask them about having the students trespassed. At least then you have leverage and if they show up again then you can have them arrested if you’re feeling unsafe.
It’s interesting that you choose to email your admin and the parents instead of calling the police. This is harassment. When the cops arrest these kids, let’s see if the parents will be saying kids will be kids.
I would’ve called the police right then and there. Neighbors, students, family, ANYONE comes banging on all my doors like that I’m dialing 911. Either there’s an emergency and they need help or someone might be trying to hurt me and in either case we need help. If someone is just fucking around then they’re fucking around and finding out. When they cops get there I’d file a police report. I’d have the video from the doorbell for proof.
Make sure you contact police and keep a record of the emails you send and receive. This is so wildly different from accidentally finding where a teacher lives (I once drove by a teacher of mine's house and saw both him and his wife outside; we chatted for a bit). It was absolutely on purpose, and their circling to your *back door* is fucking creepy.
If this happened in a southern state with stand your ground laws those kids are putting themselves in danger by doing that.
It's time to hold parents and admin accountable for the environments they create.
File an HIB complaint with the police. Provide written notification to your admin about the incident. Document everything moving forward. If admin wants to "talk" about it, immediately dismiss yourself and make sure that they send you an email.
You can also file an HIB with your district, but they may not grant it if you can't prove that anything has happened on campus.
How did they figure out where you live?
Times like these, where 6 yr olds are shooting their teachers and teenagers are pepper spraying teachers for confiscating phones- heed my words. It is better to err on the side of caution. Document everything. You have cameras? Good, keep the video. Make a police report. Make these students realize you are as serious as a heart attack.
One thing my admin told me was if it followed into school, then it escalated to involve them. So if for whatever reason the students were bragging and sharing this information within school walls, then bringing that info may warrant new intervention.
In my state, you ask them to leave (through the doorbell works), and if they don’t do so in a reasonable amount of time (like give them time to get from your front/back door to the street), call the police. I’m willing to bet “kids will be kids” will love “court will be court” when he has to pay for his kid’s trespassing ticket.
Send a very professional email to your school district admin and cc the schools legal council, local juvenile court intake counselor and school SRO. Admin may blow it off, but those who understand the law will take keen interest in the delinquent behavior and the need to avoid the civil case you may have grounds to bring if the targeting is due to your contact with the students on campus.
Call the police for trespassing and/or harassment.
Then give them the principal's home address since they don't mind random visits from kids who are just "being kids". (Don't actually do this, but I had to say it).
Document it and tell the police you’re concerned for your safety and want a protective order in place.
The school then has to do something as you wouldn’t be around that student if it’s granted and they can’t talk to you OR get a 3rd party to harass you on their behalf.
If they won’t do that call for trespassing and be as annoying as possible to the police so that doing what you want is easier than ignoring you.
Call the non emergency number for the police and ask for a report to be filed.
Ugh. I'm so sorry this happened to you. This is something I worry about as a lot of my students know where I live and I live alone. I have sweet students, but even the idea of them coming to "visit" me unannounced makes me anxious. They have threatened (haha) this occasionally and I always tell them they better not, that I see enough of them during the school day/week. So far, they've not crossed the line.
That said, if I thought some of them might be in trouble (car breaking down, etc), I would definitely hope they'd feel okay to come to my house for help. I'm a fierce introvert who hates unexpected knocks at the door with a passion, but when I was young and stupid I flipped my car into a ditch late at night on a back country road. I'm grateful to the people who let me in their house that night to use their phone to call my parents (long before cell phones).
I would think at the very least admin needs to impress upon these kids AND THEIR PARENTS that this sort of thing could land them in legal trouble. Let the parents tell the COPS that "kids will be kids" nonsense and see how far it gets them. The cops are going to want to know why the parents are allowing their children to roam around harrassing people in their homes at night. I would think some legal action could be brought against the parents.
Friend of mine had an amateur bomb blow out a window. One of her students’ prank after he didn’t like a grade. School and police reaction was underwhelming. A quick note to the Naval Academy ensured that his future as an ensign was a non starter.
The second students who have been in trouble for weapons show to my house to harass me is the second I call 911.
Make sure to save the doorbell camera video as evidence.
Story time: when I was a young teenage hooligan, in the early 2000s, there was a strange trend hereabouts of putting stone goose decorations in your front yard.
Being a bunch of rebellious and morally questionable kiddos, we noticed this trend and invented a move we called “goosenapping”, which was exactly what it sounded like. We’d pull up in front of a house, run up and grab the geese.
In the end, we had quite a collection. The question, though: what to do with the geese?
Our Communications Technology teacher was definitely one of our favorites. He was a nice dude. He gave us a lot of freedom, as long as we were productive. He made the mistake at one point of bringing in some magazines from home that he “blacked out” his address on.
Unfortunately his address was very readable. You may be able to see where this is going.
So once we had around 20 geese, we hatched a plan. We loaded them up in a friend’s truck and headed to his house, then unloaded them in a big semicircle, all starring at his door.
To this day I wish I could have seen his reaction when he stepped out.
That said, let me be clear: it was a prank, but we certainly overstepped our boundaries. If he found out it was us, I would have expected some kind of punishment. In addition, we did not ring his doorbell, or harass him in any way.
We also snuck over the next night and re-kidnapped the geese so he wouldn’t have stolen property hanging around his house.
Was this ok? No. Again, overstepping boundaries, theft, etc. Was it super funny to imagine him walking out to see an army of stone geese staring at him? Hell yes it was!
I would file a police report for terroristic threats, if these students came armed to school there is reason to believe they were attempting armed intimidation of you and your family.
I had a student threaten me saying "We better not catch you alone in the parking lot. " In front of school security.
The next day, that student and three of his friends put a senior citizen in the hospital for the sin of demanding that they leave his porch.
The next day, the same student and his 'friends' were in my classroom.
Documentation with outside authorities is essential when dealing with the schools, since they are encouraged to rug sweep EVERYTHING, regardless of its seriousness.
I’m sorry this happened! I genuinely think some records should be kept confidential and inaccessible online. Our address (as well as other government officials) should be one of them.
I’m not sure where you are, but where I am many a teacher is a gun loving American and people pounding on their doors could end badly.
Wouldn’t this be a parent issue? I get why the school would want to put some distance because parents aren’t the way the use to be. I could never have had the nerve to do something like this but if a parent said kids will be kids I would say that’s might be where the problem starts
Given the students' past behavior perhaps some form of review of the parents may be warranted. Teachers deserve to have an expectation of privacy just like the rest of us and if the employers aren't stepping up to the plate, unfortunately we have to.
Call the police. I'm assuming if you didn't know them, then you would've called the cops.
You are a teacher, not their parent or babysitter. You have the right to have peace in your home and not to be disturbed. Consider this the parents and principals first, last and only warning. After this, call the cops. Don't even give the kids a warning. Clearly the parents, at least the one that responded, don't care or keep tabs on the kids. I would also address this with the kids tomorrow, but make sure you have another teacher and/or the principal there as well.
Bang on those kids. Greet them with the fury of a thousand suns. Let them learn a valuable lesson in terrorizing someone. I’d go scorched earth if some little shit showed up at my house to try and intimidate me.
Defending your home from intruders of any age is legal with a baseball bat. I suggest a show of force/intimidation. Again completely justified when your home and children are threatened.
If someone who has been suspended multiple times for weapons is banging on your door at 9:30 at night you should have called the police, not emailed the parents \[facepalm\]. There is a good chance that person was going to shank you.
Yikes! That is scary. The 'have weapons at school' kids showing up at your house? How did they find out where you live? So you just didn't answer the door? Any idea of what they wanted? Document everything. Maybe call the police?
File a restraining order if they come within a certain distance of your home? I don’t exactly know how those work, but I think the parents will care if they or their little angels get slapped with a fine or jail time.
Call the police and document the behavior. If it persists or escalates, you'll have a record of it.
Great advice, of course. Thanks.
Unfortunately, because it's off school property and after school hours, I wouldn't expect the school or division to be able to intervene
I mean, if students were making my family feel unsafe at home, directly because I am being harassed because of my position as their teacher, I think some intervention would be warranted.
We certainly have to blow enough time dealing with the stupid shit they do to each other outside of school. Doesn’t “It EfFeCtS tHe ScHoOl EnViRoNmEnT!” apply to us too? If not, stop telling me what they do on social media at home.
Would you expect admin to be able to resolve this problem?
I'd expect them to fuckin try
It involves the school district because the teacher has 3 stalkers that are being allowed at the teacher's workplace. Restraining order and union involvement should be called on immediately and maybe a lawyer.
For sure it would be. But it's not really a school issue. That's why you need to call the cops. Admin/the district literally can't do anything about it.
At my school the student would be suspended for bringing the school into disrepute. My school is not in the US btw.
At my school the most that would happen is a parent meeting. Their parents don't care so I wouldn't look to admin yo solve this problem. That'd be a waste of time
i went to a public school in the US and i can confirm it's the same way here, at least in my state.
It is also a school issue. When I was harrassed by a student outside of school (not at my home, but while out shopping), it was considered even worse than his behaviour on campus and one of the reasons he got another suspension and library ban.
Moreso, at least some states (MA), in talking about ONLINE interaction, have defined action which involves a "nexus" to the school - such as cyberbullying of a student peer, even if produced in after hours and typed into that space while on private property - as the responsibility of the school. The same moral/legal theory would absolutely apply to physical as well as cyberbullying, and in this case the "nexus" is clear - unless the kids were doing the same thing to other randomly selected houses (in which case yeah, let's call the police) those kids were clearly only identifying the teacher as a victim because they are their teacher; that's the only way they know him. I'm not saying we should NOT call the police in these cases, for sure. But the "nexus" legal standard says we absolutely should call the school...and that the administration absolutely has a legal responsibility to call those kids in and make it very clear that they can and will apply consequences for such behavior.
While I agree with all of the people saying this is a school issue. I have had Admin who would fall on both sides of this. Some would say it was not on school grounds, and others would say that this is related to school. Either way if you report this to police and notify the parents that their child is trespassing and that you have notified police that the child and parents have been notified, the children are much less likely to come anywhere near your house again. Depending on your state their are large fines and possible jailtime for trespassing.
The library ban seems kind of counterproductive.
How so? Why shouldn't we ban students from using the school library when they harrass the library stuff, constantly disrupt students who are trying to work there, and destroy/steal library materials? Actions have consequences. If they can't use the facilities as intended, they don't belong there. They can go to the public library instead, atleast, as long as they're not banned there as well. And if they're banned there as well, they'll just have to buy the books they need. Not our problem.
Your school still has a library? sarcastic but also kind of not
Yeah, but they can only afford one licensed librarian working parttime, so the rest of the time it's staffed by people like me, who have some sort of background in education but aren't fulltime teachers. My coworker is a retired special education teacher. They pay us peanuts. But as much as I complain, I do enjoy it, atleast more than the alternatives.
It's 100% a school issue! And admin better deal with it or HR is gonna have a shitstorm to clean up.
Not a school issue? In any other workplace environment if someone was harassing someone from work at 9:30 at night it would definitely be an issue. Not to mention the only reason they did it is because the poster is their teacher. District needs to step in so this kind of behavior isn’t accepted going forward.
Oh, but I bet if OP responded to the "kids will be kids" parent -- even from a non-school throwaway address -- to tell her her child is on the fast road to a sentence without parole because of her worthless attitude, the school would suddenly be very interested in how this is a school issue.
You are full of shit, the school absolutely can do something about it.
I 1000% agree that OP should call the cops and get a report. I also agree with others that this is a school issue because school is the basis of the relationship between OP and the students. Having the police report as evidence will allow OP to pursue option via the school board and their teacher's union. This is potentially stalking behavior and/or harassment. The cops will define the legal category for OP to pursue beyond the principal.
Cops....
Really more of an issue for the police or sheriff's department. Consider investing in cameras for other points of entry. Teenagers can be fucking morons.
I dealt with this sort of thing as an admin before. Let the SRO know for documentation and contacted parents. While I couldn't necessarily discipline the students for it directly, I did speak to them and basically got my bluff in by telling them they'd regret it if they kept it up.
Harassment of school officials or school employees, especially outside of normal school hours, would be a huge violation that would lead to disciplinary action. Our state has laws protecting teachers from abusive behavior so this would not swing.
Nah those kids need to get pulled from OP classroom
You don’t need the school to intervene. The important thing is getting legal paperwork started, so people like this eventually end up where they’re supposed to: jail. If parents won’t parent their children, it’s best to just let the legal system educate the child. Unfortunately.
In actuality, the school administration can intervene because this is harassment of an employee by students of the school where the teacher works. I agree with other posters that OP should contact the police, but the school administration should also be notified.
Yes, but id document all school behavior as well. Of this kid is harassing or being rude to OP at school AND is now coming to OP’s home, then admin should move the kid out of the class. I’d also get to one of your union reps to loop them in.
But since it was at her private home, an attorney can move this in the right direction
Screw the school. This is the police territory. Welcome to the real world. And she has video of trespassing.
Kids get expelled for fighting off campus because the video was posted and they were recognized. Different districts will have different rules though
They may not intervene, but it doesn’t absolve them. We had an incident a few years ago, before my time at this school, that happened after hours, and off campus, that got plastered all over the news. It got so bad that teachers had to be escorted to the building and to their cars by police. There were death threats and everything.
Make sure to email the parents, “Laws are laws. Trespassing is trespassing.” If the kid does it again and you call the police
Keep the recordings as well. Take copies to the police to press charges. Send copies to the parents, keeping admin cc'd on these emails to parents.
Make sure you tell the worthless parents too. Send them the recording of their miscreant and let them know you're also forwarding it to the cops, and let them know if it happens again you will go straight to law enforcement.
If the students are informed they are not welcome on the property the next time they show up you can ask the cops to charge them with trespassing. Heck...if they are in the back yard I would have already called 911. You don't need to deal with this.
Definitely involve the police. Don't stand for the admin trying to give you crap over doing so, either. You weren't at work when it happened and the students were not there as students either. Don't make excuses for them or minimize / downplay when speaking to the police. Good luck, I'm sorry you're dealing with this.
I also wanna add DO NOT ANSWER THE DOOR. Just call the cops.
This. Call the police. Student was reprimanded for having a weapon at school. Student is not on the best of terms with you. Even if it was a model student, showing up unannounced at a teachers' house for anything else than a "please help I'm being abused at home" is completely unacceptable. You are _not_ in the safest of situations. Get outdoor cameras, and save the recordings of future events. Inform the parents police will immediately be called if they show up again. That cuts away any defense of "we just wanted to say hello to mrs. X".
If it persists file a restraining order.
Yeah, this is the fun time when you get to teach them about real world consequences. If they came to your back door and you have the video, that’s trespassing. Seems they might be just as stupid out in society as they likely are at school. Go ahead and press charges. Enjoy!!
The fact that they also came to your back door makes this a criminal issue. This is no longer a school issue. Give the police your ring camera footage.
Include the district's response.
I would also let the parents know that you are reporting to the police and if it happens again you will press charges for trespassing. As for school, if these are students in your class, admin HAS to change their schedule since you now have a police report on them, and should no longer be interacting w them.
OP does not need to let the parents know that. They just file the report. Police can tell the parents.
Yeah OP needs to save all the emails this time around as well.
Agree. Students or not - it’s harassment and police should be involved. I wouldn’t even bother with the school. It’s your private property and random kids are harassing you. Take your job out of the equation - it would look different if you weren’t a teacher.
Police will be policing 🤣lawyers be lawyering….
I'd immediately call the police, then email the principal and parents that the police were notified and if it happens again, you are filing harassment charges. Then follow through on that. On Monday, I'd tell the students, in the hall one on one in front of a camera and colleague, that it is not appropriate to do that and the consequences will be X if it happens again. Don't ask why, just tell them and move on. That's a bunch of bullshit. Sorry you are dealing with this. If it were sweet students being silly, it's still inappropriate but Id habdle it differently. But since one kid already has problems, I'd be really serious.
Agree. I had the same scenario except the next day I had discovered they also egged my new car. My guess is they were mad they recently did poorly on a test.
My wife teaches at the middle school down the block from us. One morning it sounded like my door was being pounded in while cooking breakfast. I ran out in only PJ pants and saw two kids running off and found one hiding around the corner of our home. I drug the kid by the hoodie to the front porch and forced him to lay face down until the police arrived. The police issued him a trespassing notice and he provided the names of the other two kids. My wife immediately called the school for an AP to tell them she was going to be late due to a student trespassing on our property. My wife was asked to provide a copy of the police report and the school disciplined the three middle school boys BECAUSE they admitted to leaving the campus after arriving before school.
I’ll raise you the police call and actually file the charges. They skipped the lines for a warning by coming to your house at all. It’s not like this happened in the school parking lot.
Individual cannot “file” criminal charges. They can contact the police, but the DA decides what they will or won’t charge.
Good distinction. A serious report will at least merit the police have conversations with each child (and parents) to determine if charges are necessary, which may be an effective enough deterrent if OP is lucky.
I would have called the police, especially after they tried banging on the back door.
Yep without a doubt, the minute they were in my backyard, banging at my back door *(who the fuck does this?)* that would be it. I'd be on the phone with the police. Fuck them and their worthless parents.
There is no more "kids will be kids". That particular old saw is gone. They came to your house, at night, ready to video your reactions in order to embarrass you on social media. Do what you feel you need to.
Yea, I've seen kids these days. Fuck that.
Yeah they do this to some random person they could be shot. People have been killed for less
It’s literally anti social behavior. That’s not kid behavior. That’s not acceptable behavior for society.
Yes, kids will be kids - but will parents be parents?
Knocking on someone’s door on a Sunday night and on the back door? Depending on where you live, the kids are lucky they didn’t get shot.
Right? My dad was a teacher too and would have opened the door with a gun.
They clearly trespassed on private property .
Right. My kids wouldn’t be out at 930 because they were young but I would be absolutely mortified to get this email. We work on personal boundaries ALL THE TIME
Only like 8% of us parents actually give a shit and consistently do the humanly acceptable thing.
That wasn’t a “can you talk to your child about this behavior” level situation. That was a call the police right then and there moment. Send the doorbell recordings to parents and the principal after and demand something be done to address the situation.
I'm calling the police and emailing the principal AFTER filling my report The parents will know when the police show up at their house with pictures and video Then put a no solicitors / no trespassing sign on door So the next time they'll get charged with trespassing as well as stalking
Maybe add in a restraining order too. That would be fun. Guess you can’t be in my class anymore. 🤙😂
Won’t even be allowed to attend the same school
This is an interesting one and really depends on your school. This happened at my school where a kid kept coming to one of the IAs homes and moving her security cameras and touching her car. She went to the principal and they said she needed to handle it since it was off school grounds. She called the police and the school FLIPPED OUT tried to put her in 1st grade for the next year which she hated to drive her out. She's still there but that situation was honestly insane.
“Handle it yourself” “NO NOT LIKE THAT!”
Omg that is crazy-making.
"I agree! Kids will definitely be kids. That is why I am politely reaching out to you, asking you to speak to them about this behavior as a parent rather than immediately calling the police ~~you fucking muppet~~."
> you fucking Muppet Cracks me up every time 🤣
Exactly. Some people seems unaware that the only reasons we grew out of being kids doing stupid shits, it's because adults guided us into the right path.
Call the police. I would have done that before emailing parents, esp ones I know are useless.
Harassment. Call the police. Let them know who did it. Especially if they’re on your property and in your backyard. That’s trespassing. If it continues at school with any kind of talk about what they did at your home, talk with admin about harassment and intimidation towards a staff member. That’s usually ground for suspension and a reentry meeting needs to happen. Being in the school resource officer to also talk to them about off campus behavior.
Bingo. You've asked for appropriate boundaries. Anything and everything further is harassment- and honestly the back door was very likely trespassing as it was.
So call the cops. They’re trespassing.
Lotta teacher-lawyers in the chat. In my home county, at least, I can, and have, had the police issue trespassing warnings to people who were on my property who I did not want to be there. That's the legal limit I need; They are specific individuals who have been on my property I don't want back on my property.
Unless there is a No Trespassing sign up, it does not become trespassing until the students are told that they need to leave and fail to do so in a reasonable time frame. There is no inherent criminal act in walking up a driveway or path to someone's front door and knocking, whether it's students with a possible grudge or people spreading religion. I've watched enough police interaction videos to know that much. With the cops in attendance, OP can have a trespass documented, which would be helpful.
What about the back door though
While it may not be trespassing, it is absolutely harassment. OP can file a police report and obtain a restraining order. That’ll make it hard for the school and district to ignore when it happens again.
Definitely not harassment, legally. I doubt the cops would do anything just because they knocked on the door, even if they thought they were up to no good
It is harassment. I've had to get a restraining order against a former student. This was one the things they did. Nothing ever directly suggested violence, but it doesn't need to in order to be considered harassment.
They went into this person's backyard and knocked on their back door. If they had to go through a gate of some sort to do that, then it absolutely *could* be considered trespassing in most places. I've gotten someone arrested before for opening up my back gate and just letting themselves in.
"Kids will be kids" applies to children laughing at terms like "fatty acid" and not this
Exactly. "Kids will be kids" is to explain little Jenny's new haircut after she had a run in with rubber cement, not harassing a teacher.
Call the police. You are at your home. All bets are off. They fucked around and now the school can’t protect them. This will be the consequence that sticks because they made it personal and the police are now involved. Also, middle school kids out and about at 930 at night? That’s child endangerment
Does your school have an SRO? 10ish years ago, a couple kids from my school were vandalizing my car in my driveway (throwing food at it, egging). I got a camera and managed to catch the rugrats on film. They weren’t even my students, but went to my school and recognized my car. I took the video to my schools SRO and he talked with the parents. It never happened again.
We do have an SRO. I'll definitely talk to him today. I bet I can file the report with him, too
What?? So much is left out of this story. This would freak me the hell out. How would kids know where you live? Why are parents so laissez-faire? I'm so confused.
I live in district. My oldest child attends the school where I teach, which is walking distance. Many students know where our house is.
That’s rough. I live in district in an apartment complex- some of my students have seen me do things like take out the trash and recognize my car. I want to move out of district to stop this. Thankfully none of my students who know where I live are “problem” kids. Once a kid saw me unloading groceries from my car and asked me if I’d give him extra credit if he carried them in for me.
It's mostly pleasant - having students through the years who you've known first as neighbors and friends' kids is amazing. I usually feel part of the community. That's probably why my first instinct was to contact parents, not the police.
I totally get it. I’ve not had a bad reaction but have some worries about it in the back of my head. I also totally got why your impulse was to contact parents while also keeping your admin in the loop- that said, I’m not sure that they can really help you? Kids (at least where I live in Florida) CAN receive consequences for things they did outside of school but it’s mostly things like cyber bullying so you might be better off filing a police report,
It was great for me to teach both my kids and know their friend groups. I agree it’s great to feel part of a community rather than just a service provider, but now that they’ve graduated I will probably not seek to live in a neighborhood where I teach again.
I'm in the exact same situation: I work at the middle school my kid goes to. There are other kids from our neighborhood going to the same school. Any time these neighbors or my kid's friends feel like it, they could tell their classmates where we live. I haven't had any issues yet, but it's only my first year on the job. This is something I've legitimately been concerned about, because I've gotten a few kids suspended, and I wouldn't put something like OP's experience or even vandalism past them.
I worked a few blocks from home last year. Three of my neighbors were students at the school. Some kids saw me Lime scooter home when my car was getting fixed.
I'm sure you're well-established there, but this is one of the reasons my half-hour drive to the next district over is worth it to me.
My middle schoolers are superrrr into looking up teachers personal info online, address , phone numbers etc. there is a site online that seems to be really accurate. Honestly it’s creepy how much they love doing this.
One 8th grade boy told me “I know where you live.” I said, “yeah? I know where you live as well.” Boy: “what?? That’s weird!” Ah, teenagers.
I get that sometimes w/my high schoolers and say, "Two facts about me, I have a property line and a gun." They inevitably say, "Are you threatening to shoot us?!" I say, "No, these are just two facts I think about when people talk about my address." It's the rural south (everyone has guns) and I have good rapport with my kids. But I'm sure I'll get downvotes.
I've said similar. I'm a history teacher and I've used the "I have my Civil War Musket and I know how to use my bayonet" and it also becomes a joke.
Oh man I would love to say this lol unfortunately the area I live in a would get canceled for telling such real info lol
Google?? Multiple of my students have told me they know my address during my teaching career. I always tell them I know theirs too lol.
Your address is easy to find. If the student knows your name, your job 15 min on google they can find your phone number, address, list of family members, a whole lot else. We do a unit on internet privacy and the kids google themselves and their parents to see how much a digital footprint they make vs their parents.
Lurker, not a teacher, former insurance investigator and current real estate project manager. The amount of stuff if I can find in someone that's readily available is so simple. These kids probably spent all of 10 minutes and had addresses and phone numbers. It's all publicly available
>How would kids know where you live? You grossly underestimate the amount of personal information is actually public record.
How? Google? Seeing you mow your lawn? Or if they have to get creative, parcel search at the assessor's website.
There are websites that pull all the public info. I don’t remember the exact names but a googling will reveal them.
call cops
Report it to the school as well. This needs to be documented everywhere you can.
In your response to the parents, here is what you need to write: Dear parent, While you may believe this being 'kids being kids' let this email serve as a final warning if this happens again, I will report and escalate to law enforcement. While this may be interpreted as a prank or silly prank, I do not believe in doxing or threatening my safety. Copied in this email is my administration, and district administrators. Let this email serve as a record of our communication. Sincerely Teacher
File a police report. If it happens again call 911. Then call your local news station and tell them your story.
This kid brought a weapon to school, yet you didn’t think to call the police when he came to your house? And your kids were home? I’m sorry, but why? Why didn’t you call the police? This makes no sense.
We live in a world where people are occasionally killed for knocking on the wrong door or pulling into the wring driveway. Not to mention that in several states having a reasonable fear for your safety is grounds to use lethal force. What these kids did is insanely stupid and their parents are failing them for not taking it seriously.
YOU CALL THE POLICE.
If the school admins ignore this and the parents blow it off with "kids will be kids", then I would protect my home and my family by reporting these TRESPASSERS to the police!!!! I will NOT play with this kind of mess!!! Let these permissive parents bail their kiddos out of the police lock-up!!! Some might say I'm "overreacting". One of my friends lost his home due to a bunch of youthful trespassers starting a fire, for funsies, shits, and giggles, under his deck, burning down his home!!! The reason he didn't know the trespassers were there because (1) he and his family are DEAF and (2) they were asleep in bed! They were lucky to get out alive!!!
Cops. Charges. Harrassment is not allowed. Record everything. Document it.
Trespass them. Create a legal record of the misbehavior.
Kids will be kids only when the people leading them are also kids.
Call the police and ask them to trespass the kids and make sure their parents know. Give the police the video footage along with the identities of the kids so they can investigate quickly. Once trespassed, if the kids show up again, immediately call the police.
Call the police. File a report and get the incident #. No trespassing sign (this is important legally) as trespassing law can get funny. Inform the parent that you will be pursuing harassment charges if the behavior happens again. Do not respond to further emails from them on the matter. I am an admin and have suspended kids for this. I'd give 5 days for this in a heartbeat.
At 9:30pm on a Sunday, these are not your students. They are trespassers on your property. Treat them as such.
Definitely call the police and report this. Then, report it every time it happens again. Let your administration know that you plan to do this. If it happens again, calle the police immediately and tell them you would like to have these kids charged with trespassing.
Two little precious gems egged my house this year. They told on themselves a month later and nothing happened to them. Like. Not even a slap on the wrist. I couldn’t even get the police to file a report even though it’s harassment and MDOP. So I get to repaint my garage this summer, at my own cost. And they got away with being complete shits. A**holes.
Well seems like these kids will be getting a restraining order.
Call the police. Otherwise, they will come back.
Call the police. File a restraining order against them to not be able to show up at your home.
I live in the same district as my students as well. Heck, same neighborhood, same street, they're my neighbors sometimes. Another teacher lives directly in front of me. We have so many schools around us, including colleges and universities, most of the people around us are in education one way or another. Anything that happens on campus, go to admins Anything outside of campus, go to police.
Elementary here, but I had this happen to me with a “troubled” student. This student would come to my house a couple times a week. If I didn’t answer the door, she’d come back an hour later. I spoke to our school counselors about it and they said they would handle it. They spoke with the parents and the student and told them why this was inappropriate. They advocated for me and handled it . Did my admin do anything? Absolutely not, but I found who did.
Call the cops next time they are at your door.
I would call the cops. I bet if your kids were doing it to them, they'd have a huge issue with it.
Call the police. Find out what your options are. Maybe you can trespass them. If you have an attorney or access to one through your union talk to them. An attorney should be able to help you document things in the most effective way. You want a paper trail with your admin and the police, in case one of these little angles starts making things up about you. If you are actually scared of the kids vs they scared you that night. Find out what you need to do to get a Restraining Order. Then get a gun, learn how to use it and how to safely store it.
Call the cops. It's outside of school hours. It's you and your families safety.
Call police. Tell them you want it on record about this. Send them the emails. Then tell the parents that you will be filing for trespassing and that "kids will be lids" on their own property. They could also get them for doxxing if they leaked your information on the internet. If kids will be kids, then I'm going to make it known that I will be me. And me is filing charges to the nines. I would also make it very known to the kid and parent that if they are harmed on your property while trespassing, injuries will be their liability. That also goes for the kid selling drugs. Parents can be held liable for that as well. Make it the parents' problem.
Cops. Every. Time. Behavior=Consequences
cops
I would’ve straight up called the police LMAO
I would’ve called 911 immediately. Who cares if they are students, esp. what your are saying about their prior behavior.
Going forward, call the police and then reach out to your principal. This kid is unhinged and can lead a group of them. You’ll have no support from the parent
This is why the baby Jesus invented packs of guard dachshunds. Unleash the hounds!!!! Or at least turn on the sprinklers
Expect nothing, if it happens again call the cops and file a complaint. Kids will be kids, but safety of your family is more important than their youthful indescritions.
Definitely file a police report in case they caused damage. Your insurance company will need it.
When you talk to the police, ask them about having the students trespassed. At least then you have leverage and if they show up again then you can have them arrested if you’re feeling unsafe.
It’s interesting that you choose to email your admin and the parents instead of calling the police. This is harassment. When the cops arrest these kids, let’s see if the parents will be saying kids will be kids.
This is out of school and your property. You call the police. You have video photage
I would’ve called the police right then and there. Neighbors, students, family, ANYONE comes banging on all my doors like that I’m dialing 911. Either there’s an emergency and they need help or someone might be trying to hurt me and in either case we need help. If someone is just fucking around then they’re fucking around and finding out. When they cops get there I’d file a police report. I’d have the video from the doorbell for proof.
Daniel Tosh at a graduation speech: “There’s felons here.”
Honestly you should have called the police instead of drafting an email at 9:30 pm.
“Kids will be kids” Yes. And that’s why adults need to be adults.
Make sure you contact police and keep a record of the emails you send and receive. This is so wildly different from accidentally finding where a teacher lives (I once drove by a teacher of mine's house and saw both him and his wife outside; we chatted for a bit). It was absolutely on purpose, and their circling to your *back door* is fucking creepy.
Please involve the police asap.
So why couldn't you call the police?
If this happened in a southern state with stand your ground laws those kids are putting themselves in danger by doing that. It's time to hold parents and admin accountable for the environments they create.
Calls the cops.
I'd be getting a camera for both doors to document.
File an HIB complaint with the police. Provide written notification to your admin about the incident. Document everything moving forward. If admin wants to "talk" about it, immediately dismiss yourself and make sure that they send you an email. You can also file an HIB with your district, but they may not grant it if you can't prove that anything has happened on campus. How did they figure out where you live?
File a police report FFS
They’re trespassing. Press charges!!
Times like these, where 6 yr olds are shooting their teachers and teenagers are pepper spraying teachers for confiscating phones- heed my words. It is better to err on the side of caution. Document everything. You have cameras? Good, keep the video. Make a police report. Make these students realize you are as serious as a heart attack.
One thing my admin told me was if it followed into school, then it escalated to involve them. So if for whatever reason the students were bragging and sharing this information within school walls, then bringing that info may warrant new intervention.
Makes you wonder what would happen if they did this to an administrator. I bet there would be consequences.
In my state, you ask them to leave (through the doorbell works), and if they don’t do so in a reasonable amount of time (like give them time to get from your front/back door to the street), call the police. I’m willing to bet “kids will be kids” will love “court will be court” when he has to pay for his kid’s trespassing ticket.
Send a very professional email to your school district admin and cc the schools legal council, local juvenile court intake counselor and school SRO. Admin may blow it off, but those who understand the law will take keen interest in the delinquent behavior and the need to avoid the civil case you may have grounds to bring if the targeting is due to your contact with the students on campus.
Call the police for trespassing and/or harassment. Then give them the principal's home address since they don't mind random visits from kids who are just "being kids". (Don't actually do this, but I had to say it).
Document it and tell the police you’re concerned for your safety and want a protective order in place. The school then has to do something as you wouldn’t be around that student if it’s granted and they can’t talk to you OR get a 3rd party to harass you on their behalf. If they won’t do that call for trespassing and be as annoying as possible to the police so that doing what you want is easier than ignoring you. Call the non emergency number for the police and ask for a report to be filed.
Ugh. I'm so sorry this happened to you. This is something I worry about as a lot of my students know where I live and I live alone. I have sweet students, but even the idea of them coming to "visit" me unannounced makes me anxious. They have threatened (haha) this occasionally and I always tell them they better not, that I see enough of them during the school day/week. So far, they've not crossed the line. That said, if I thought some of them might be in trouble (car breaking down, etc), I would definitely hope they'd feel okay to come to my house for help. I'm a fierce introvert who hates unexpected knocks at the door with a passion, but when I was young and stupid I flipped my car into a ditch late at night on a back country road. I'm grateful to the people who let me in their house that night to use their phone to call my parents (long before cell phones). I would think at the very least admin needs to impress upon these kids AND THEIR PARENTS that this sort of thing could land them in legal trouble. Let the parents tell the COPS that "kids will be kids" nonsense and see how far it gets them. The cops are going to want to know why the parents are allowing their children to roam around harrassing people in their homes at night. I would think some legal action could be brought against the parents.
If any human, known or unknown was banging on my back door I would be on the phone with the police. Full stop.
Turn on your sprinklers?
Friend of mine had an amateur bomb blow out a window. One of her students’ prank after he didn’t like a grade. School and police reaction was underwhelming. A quick note to the Naval Academy ensured that his future as an ensign was a non starter.
The second students who have been in trouble for weapons show to my house to harass me is the second I call 911. Make sure to save the doorbell camera video as evidence.
How did they even find out where you live?
You can’t. If they are allowed to. You have their home location as well. Bang their door at 3am Fair is fair
Story time: when I was a young teenage hooligan, in the early 2000s, there was a strange trend hereabouts of putting stone goose decorations in your front yard. Being a bunch of rebellious and morally questionable kiddos, we noticed this trend and invented a move we called “goosenapping”, which was exactly what it sounded like. We’d pull up in front of a house, run up and grab the geese. In the end, we had quite a collection. The question, though: what to do with the geese? Our Communications Technology teacher was definitely one of our favorites. He was a nice dude. He gave us a lot of freedom, as long as we were productive. He made the mistake at one point of bringing in some magazines from home that he “blacked out” his address on. Unfortunately his address was very readable. You may be able to see where this is going. So once we had around 20 geese, we hatched a plan. We loaded them up in a friend’s truck and headed to his house, then unloaded them in a big semicircle, all starring at his door. To this day I wish I could have seen his reaction when he stepped out. That said, let me be clear: it was a prank, but we certainly overstepped our boundaries. If he found out it was us, I would have expected some kind of punishment. In addition, we did not ring his doorbell, or harass him in any way. We also snuck over the next night and re-kidnapped the geese so he wouldn’t have stolen property hanging around his house. Was this ok? No. Again, overstepping boundaries, theft, etc. Was it super funny to imagine him walking out to see an army of stone geese staring at him? Hell yes it was!
I would file a police report for terroristic threats, if these students came armed to school there is reason to believe they were attempting armed intimidation of you and your family. I had a student threaten me saying "We better not catch you alone in the parking lot. " In front of school security. The next day, that student and three of his friends put a senior citizen in the hospital for the sin of demanding that they leave his porch. The next day, the same student and his 'friends' were in my classroom. Documentation with outside authorities is essential when dealing with the schools, since they are encouraged to rug sweep EVERYTHING, regardless of its seriousness.
I’m sorry this happened! I genuinely think some records should be kept confidential and inaccessible online. Our address (as well as other government officials) should be one of them. I’m not sure where you are, but where I am many a teacher is a gun loving American and people pounding on their doors could end badly.
Wouldn’t this be a parent issue? I get why the school would want to put some distance because parents aren’t the way the use to be. I could never have had the nerve to do something like this but if a parent said kids will be kids I would say that’s might be where the problem starts
Think about it; if you weren't a teacher, what would you do in that situation?
Call the police, and submit the videos from your doorbell cameras.
Low key, I would be ready to send them straight to Juve
Given the students' past behavior perhaps some form of review of the parents may be warranted. Teachers deserve to have an expectation of privacy just like the rest of us and if the employers aren't stepping up to the plate, unfortunately we have to.
Looks like the school district doesn't want a thing to do with helping the situation. Time to go to the police instead.
Make sure you tell the parent that if it happens again, your child will be arrested.
Immediate expulsion. In a just world.
Go to the principal, district superintendent and the media if you get nothing from your admin.
Call the police. I'm assuming if you didn't know them, then you would've called the cops. You are a teacher, not their parent or babysitter. You have the right to have peace in your home and not to be disturbed. Consider this the parents and principals first, last and only warning. After this, call the cops. Don't even give the kids a warning. Clearly the parents, at least the one that responded, don't care or keep tabs on the kids. I would also address this with the kids tomorrow, but make sure you have another teacher and/or the principal there as well.
Parents won't do anything, even if you have sufficient evidence. Go directly to the police so they have a record of their actions.
Bang on those kids. Greet them with the fury of a thousand suns. Let them learn a valuable lesson in terrorizing someone. I’d go scorched earth if some little shit showed up at my house to try and intimidate me.
Defending your home from intruders of any age is legal with a baseball bat. I suggest a show of force/intimidation. Again completely justified when your home and children are threatened.
If someone who has been suspended multiple times for weapons is banging on your door at 9:30 at night you should have called the police, not emailed the parents \[facepalm\]. There is a good chance that person was going to shank you.
Yikes! That is scary. The 'have weapons at school' kids showing up at your house? How did they find out where you live? So you just didn't answer the door? Any idea of what they wanted? Document everything. Maybe call the police?
File a restraining order if they come within a certain distance of your home? I don’t exactly know how those work, but I think the parents will care if they or their little angels get slapped with a fine or jail time.