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Comment by lotsofpulp | Hacker News Reader

Teachers don’t have guns, and the ability to tie you up in the courts or worse.

Teachers can weaponize CPS reports and absolutely cause legal problems. I know someone who dealt with that. Their kid's doctor put the kid on an ADHD medicine, he had a bad reaction to it, and then the doctor told the mother to immediately discontinue it.

The teacher was annoyed the kid was kind of disruptive and so filed a report that the mom had committed "medical neglect" for not giving her son the meds.

She had to take off work and deal with random CPS visits until they were satisfied.

This is a kid with good grades who can read multiple grade levels higher and who is most likely bored in class. I think he was in the first grade at the time

I don't know what the consequences of that are or could have been but it raised my eyebrows

Yeah, that's a great point, thanks for sharing. One time a teacher cut in line in front of me at the grocery store, so it seems like the real problem here is teachers having too much power.

Sure, that makes the case for reform stronger for police unions, but why should bad union behavior (ie. protecting criminal or incompetent members) be tolerated at all?

Because the freedom of association is a core principle of the American constitution. Curtailing that freedom should be a measure of last resort.

>Curtailing that freedom should be a measure of last resort.

This just feels like it turns into a cudgel against whatever groups you hate. Bad police unions? Boo! Let's ban them! Bad teacher unions? Free association is protected by the constitution so they get a pass. Catholic priests? On one hand they're consistently hated on by progressives, but on the other hand much of the arguments that can be used to defend them can be applied to teachers.

Police, like the military, should be held to a higher standard, because we grant them a monopoly on violence.

This. Police routinely take away people's lives, either by shooting them needlessly, or using their power to fabricate charges or evidence against someone to ensure they spend their life in the criminal justice system.

What you want to say is: teachers don't have qualified immunity

Nonsense.

Safford Unified School District #1 v. Redding, 557 U.S. 364 (2009) (citing Thomas v. Roberts, 323 F.3d 950 (11th Cir. 2003)("This case involves a[n] ... action brought by thirteen elementary school students ... against Tracey Morgan, their teacher [and others].... [W]e affirm[] the district court's grant of qualified immunity to the individual defendants on the children's claims.")).

Fair enough, TIL.

Maybe not teachers or the DPW mechanic or whatever, but pretty much ever "enforcement" arm of the state does by proxy though.

Anyone with "inspector" in their title is just an abstraction layer above the cops and courts.

They only have the power to mess up dozens of kids' futures each...

I know some kids who had a really bad time in school because some teachers treated them badly. Yes, it's not as bad as what the cops can do, but it was still pretty life altering.

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