Teacher Gets Jail Time After Instructing Students to Hit the Class ‘Bully’

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by Nicole Fabian-Weber 16 hours ago

Cynthia Ambrose was an elementary school teacher from San Antonio, Texas. Why was she a teacher and not one anymore? Because Ambrose encouraged her students to line up and hit Aiden Neely, a 6-year-old who was "showing signs of being a bully," as hard as they could so he could see "what it feels like to be a bully." And, being children, they obliged. The assault on Neely stopped after the seventh kid hit him so hard in the back of the head that he began to cry. Yes, this was under the supervision of a teacher.

After being fired from her job, Ambrose was convicted of the misdemeanor charge "official oppression" by a jury, and now she's been sentenced to 30 days in jail. Just or totally out of line?

I'd say this, coupled with the fact that Ambrose will never work as a teacher again, is an appropriate punishment. To think of what all of those children must have felt like that day -- scared, humiliated, confused -- while under the supervision of Ambrose, a teacher, is nauseating. Bullying is obviously a real problem, and it needs to be dealt with, but how Ambrose went about the situation was wrong, and she deserves to be punished for that.

Hopefully, during the 30 days this woman is in prison, she'll sit and really think about what she did. Aiden Neely should have had repercussions if he were being a bully, but not like that. If anyone should know that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," it's a teacher.

Do you think this is an appropriate punishment for Cynthia Ambrose?

Image via Tim (Timothy) Pearce/Flickr

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