My name is Dominique Lark.
I'm an advocate, a counselor, and a jack-of-all-trades.
We're in a time of change where, back in the day,
discipline was handled very differently in schools,
and now we've got a behavior education plan
that really diminishes teachers' ability
and recourse when things happen.
It is really difficult,
especially in extreme circumstances.
I had a student that punched another student in the face
and I told him, I got in between the two students
and tried to escort him out of the room,
and told me he couldn't be in the room
doing those types of things.
He then bit me and started kicking and trying to attack me.
He punched me in the face, looked me in the eye and said,
“What the #### you gonna do, ##### ### #####?”
And in that moment I had to use all my strength
to be able to walk away from that
and take a deep breath, and not respond and react in a way
that most people would in that situation,
when you've got somebody
that's really kind of pushing those limits.
Those are some of the things that go on
that I wish didn't happen in this school.
But teachers are assaulted and there is no recourse,
other than hopefully to turn that into a learning situation
where we can all better ourselves.
I don't know that there are a lot of supports
for the teacher mental health,
other than teachers supporting each other
and the community that we build within each building
with our peers and our colleagues,
I think is critical to our feeling a sense of belonging
and importance in the community, and feeling supported
because it can be challenging being a teacher
and having to try to coordinate
and balance 25 different learners and personality types
in a room and try to get them to all get along
and co-exist, and then generate a climate
where they're cooperative and learning.
[slow guitar music]