Teacher Shares Heartbreaking Notes From Students

Kyle Schwartz is a third grade teacher in Colorado.

A few years ago, she started asking her students to complete the following sentence as part of an insightful assignment:

“I wish my teacher knew …"

The responses Schwartz received were far more powerful than she could have ever imagined, even though she already knew that 90 percent of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch.

“That means they are living below or very close to the federal poverty line,” Schwartz told Us Weekly.

“I wanted to know more about their lives and how I could better [support] them. Instead of making assumptions about them, I decided to let them tell me what I needed to know.”

And what follows are the children"s responses. They are both eye-opening and heart-breaking…

1. All Alone

The notes Schwartz received largely centered on what sort of support system, of lackthereof, the kids had at home.

2. I Wish My Teacher Knew…

This student hasn’t seen his father in six years.

3. No Mother, No Signature

This is why one student often doesn’t have his or her homework signed.

4. I Want to Go to College

This is a great sentiment. But the implication is that the student had no one else to tell.

5. A Hard-Working Father

Props to this father. But sadness for his children.

6. I’m Homeless

Can you imagine not having a home to go back to after school?

View Slideshow

Teacher Shares Heartbreaking Notes From Students

Kyle Schwartz is a third grade teacher in Colorado.

A few years ago, she started asking her students to complete the following sentence as part of an insightful assignment:

“I wish my teacher knew …"

The responses Schwartz received were far more powerful than she could have ever imagined, even though she already knew that 90 percent of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch.

“That means they are living below or very close to the federal poverty line,” Schwartz told Us Weekly.

“I wanted to know more about their lives and how I could better [support] them. Instead of making assumptions about them, I decided to let them tell me what I needed to know.”

And what follows are the children"s responses. They are both eye-opening and heart-breaking…

1. All Alone

The notes Schwartz received largely centered on what sort of support system, of lackthereof, the kids had at home.

2. I Wish My Teacher Knew…

This student hasn’t seen his father in six years.

3. No Mother, No Signature

This is why one student often doesn’t have his or her homework signed.

4. I Want to Go to College

This is a great sentiment. But the implication is that the student had no one else to tell.

5. A Hard-Working Father

Props to this father. But sadness for his children.

6. I’m Homeless

Can you imagine not having a home to go back to after school?

View Slideshow

Teacher Issues New Homework Policy, Becomes An Internet Hero

Before Samantha Gallagher sent her daughter, Brooke off to second grade last week, she was prepared for nightly homework that would interrupt dinner and downtime with the family.

However, during a Parent-Teacher night prior to the start of the school year at Godley Elementary School in Texas, her daughter’s teacher, Brandy Young handed out a letter to parents explaining her new homework policy.

According to MSN, Gallagher shared the letter with Facebook friends, which soon went viral.

“Brooke is loving her new teacher already!” Gallgher captioned the phone of Young’s letter, which stated the following:

There will be no formally assigned homework this year.  Rather, I ask you spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success. Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside, and get your child to bed early.

Young explained in the letter that she did her own homework this summer on the pros and cons of sending kids home to do more work after school.  

When she was unable to find research that improved a student’s performance in the classroom, she made the decision to allow her class to enjoy life outside school when they’re at home.

“[Students] work hard all day. When they go home they have other things they need to learn there,” Young explained to CBS News. “I’m trying to develop their whole person; it’s not beneficial to go home and do pencil and paper work.”

The letter has been shared nearly 72,000 times, and Gallagher has marveled at the interest garnered by this one simple change.

“Ive have been messaged and told the letter has reached Canada, Scotland, Ireland and Polynesia!” she wrote on Facebook.

“Just goes to show how universal this subject is!….and now Africa!”

Young credits the school district for allowing her to come up with this idea.

“Our superintendent really encouraged us to be innovators,” she said.

“Whether or not it’s popular, I just wanted to see if it would work. You can’t know if it’s gonna work unless you try it.”

Getting kids outside after school and encouraging them to spend more time with family?  Sounds like it just might work.

Mother Sends Son to Kindergarten, Experiences ALL the Feels

Student Who Knocked Up Teacher Awarded $6 Million Settlement

A former student who impregnated a high school teacher was awarded $ 6 million in a settlement, officials in Redlands, Calif., confirmed.

Vince Finaldi, an attorney for the former student, said the egregious conduct of the Redlands Unified School District warranted the payment.

“The size of this settlement represents the gravity of the damage done to this young victim and his family,” he said in a statement.

“It also highlights the extreme malfeasance and neglect by school officials who turned a blind eye to the criminal conduct of a teacher.”

Administrators, he reiterated, “failed to protect a student.” 

Laura Whitehurst, 29, was arrested in July 2013 and charged with 41 felony counts of unlawful sex acts. Yes. Forty-one felony charges.

That could have meant up to 29 years in prison.

Ultimately, she pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and two counts of oral copulation with a person under 18.

Her sexual dalliances involved three boys at Citrus Valley and Redlands high schools during her tenure as a teacher in both locations.

As part of a plea bargain in which she admitted having the student’s baby, she was sentenced to a year in jail and released after six months.

On probation, she is a registered sex offender.

Laura Whitehurst shares custody of the love child with the former high school student, who is now 21, according to the victim’s attorneys.

In the lawsuit, attorneys for the student alleged that school officials knew of his romance with Whitehurst and failed to warn his family. 

Teacher Pleads Guilty To Having Sex With Students

The lawsuit also claimed that a colleague of Whitehurst’s was aware of the relationship and that school officials questioned her about it.

Despite the huge payment, district officials said they were admitting no wrongdoing by settling the lawsuit, blaming Whitehurst alone.

Spokesman Tom DeLapp said the district is “not pleased with this” but settled “this tragic case once and for all so we can move forward.”

“We felt there could be serious damage to the reputation of a very fine school district” if the legal case were to be drawn out, he added.

Throwing a bit of shade, he said they ended this before “the plaintiff’s lawyers were allowed to drag the [school] through the mud all over again.”

“In the long run, $ 6 million is high, but it could have been much higher if this had been left to an empathetic jury in another city.”

DeLapp feared a jury “looking past the facts” to find a “financial scapegoat for the unprofessional, criminal actions of one individual.”

He cited the explosion of media attention, noting “there was a picture of her in the birthing suite circulated to people at the school with the boy.”

View Slideshow: 24 Teachers 2 Hot 4 Students

The former student who fathered Laura Whitehurst’s baby said the relationship started in 2012 when he was 16 and lasted for a year.

He told authorities Whitehurst began driving him home from school functions and spending long hours with him away from the school.

On a trip to Disneyland, she grabbed his hand and told him she wanted to kiss him, and shortly after the trip, things escalated. Hard.

She and the boy began having repeated sexual intercourse at her apartment, he said, and Whitehurst gave birth to their child in June 2013.

The boy was in attendance for the birth.

He said later that Whitehurst gave him alcohol and told him it was a “miracle pregnancy” as she did not believe she could get pregnant.

As if that weren’t a bizarre enough series of events, she even gave him a Bible on his 17th birthday and took him to church, he said.

View Slideshow: Strange But True News Hall of Fame

Middle School Teacher Gets Pregnant by Student, Arrested

A middle school teacher in Houston has surrendered to authorities due to accusations that she carried on a sexual relationship with a 13-year old student.

According to The New York Post, Alexandria Vera also got impregnated by the student.

Oops! Her bad!

Vera, 24, was booked on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child and released on $ 100,000 bail, one day after local police officers issued a warrant for the English teacher’s arrest.

A local ABC affiliate reports that Vera was working at Stovall Middle School last summer when she met the unnamed young teenager.

Vera told investigators that the boy asked for her numbers over Instagram one day and, from there, the two fell in love.

The day after this simple request was made, Vera says she drove to the boy’s house when his parents weren’t home and the two had sexual intercourse for the first time.

Their inappropriate flirting continued throughout the school year, as students took note of the two engaging in romantic behavior in between classes.

“He, like, grabbed her butt and everyone saw it,” one student told ABC. “And then they were talking about it.”

We’ll go ahead and say what you are all thinking: EWWWWW!

Vera became pregnant with the boy’s baby in January, legal documents allege.

The student’s family was actually supportive of the couple and even included the teacher at family gatherings … until Child Protective Services questioned the pair.

Vera then aborted pregnancy, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Vera has a four-year old daughter from a previous relationship.

The Aldine Independent School District placed the teacher on administrative leave in April once details of her affair started making the rounds.

Teresa Giudice: I"m Becoming a YOGA Teacher!

When you think of zen, peace and tranquility, think of Teresa Giudice.

We know that last sentence likely threw you right out of your tree pose, but that is just what The Real Housewives of New Jersey star and recent jailbird would like you to believe.

Teresa recently told People she practiced yoga every morning during her taxing year-long stint in prison and now plans to become an accredited yoga instructor.

“I want to come out with my own yoga DVD tape, my own yoga line,” she told the magazine.

“I love yoga,” she added. “It really changed my life. It really got me through this whole ordeal – it really did – being there and everything. I can’t live without it now.”

It seems like just yesterday when the bombastic Housewife was flipping over tables and screaming obscenities on television, but now the Jersey native is turning to the Universe to guide her path.

“I read a lot of inspirational books in prison, like whatever you want, you can put it out there,” she said.

And what is it she wants?

“I want to make $ 40 million this year. I hope that happens – for real, I made a vision board.”

Now THERE’S the Teresa we know and love. Because no matter what Jessie J says, it’s all about the money, money, money.

We’ll keep an eye on whether she gets there between her burgeoning yoga empire and tell-all memoir, but we’ve got a feeling she won’t be getting her prana on with the Dalai Lama anytime soon.

Check out our gif collection featuring Teresa channeling her inner zen in the slideshow below. Namaste.

View Slideshow: 23 Teresa Giudice GIFs That Should Worry Her Fellow Inmates (and Everyone Else)

Florida Teacher Fired For Sending Nude Photos to Students

Based on recent stories like the criminal who hid from cops in a gator pond and promptly got eaten by gators, you might think that the state of Florida has simply given up on educating its residents.

But believe it or not, there are still functioning schools in the Sunshine State – they’re just staffed with teachers like Dionne Younce.

Until this week, Younce was a gym teacher at Nease High School in Ponta Vedra, Florida. She was fired when administrators realized she’d been sending nude photos to multiple male students.

Yes, it seems Younce wasn’t content to just send her racy Snapchats to one teen, she hit up multiple students, two of whom reportedly realized what was going on when they showed one another the pics they’d received.

Not surprisingly, Younce is currently under investigation and may face criminal charges.

It’s not known exactly how long Younce was with the school, but sources say she was such a recent hire that she was still in the probationary period of her employment.

It takes some teachers years to find the student they want to send nude photos to, but Younce found several in just a few months.

Even so, we’re guessing she doesn’t feel particularly lucky this Valentine’s Day weekend.

Cheer up, Dionne. You may never teach again, but you’ve earned a spot in our Florida Woman Hall of Shame:

View Slideshow: Florida Woman: Strange But True Stories

Coolest Teacher Ever Dresses as Drake, Goes All "Hotline Bling" on Students

A few months ago, we introduced readers to the hottest math teacher on the planet.

Now, it"s time to meet the coolest math teacher on the planet.

We don"t know his name, but we do know his games – and it"s this: dress as Drake for Halloween. But just not any form of Drake.

The really awkward Drake from the music video for "Hotline Bling."

And then, of course, actually dance like Drake from this same weird music video in order to complete the Halloween costume.

“My Pre Calc Teacher Is Drake From Hotline Bling For Halloween,” wrote a student on Twitter, linking to video of her teacher getting down like his (non) badass self.

The footage has been re-Tweeted over 40,000 times in just a few days, and reaction from social media users has included:

• k but that teacher who was Hotline Bling Drake for Halloween is a) fine af and b) cute af for doing the dance for his students.


• still not over that teacher doing the "hotline bling" dance though.


• Believe me when I say that the pre-calc teacher dancing to Drake is my favorite thing on the internet.

Critics have accused Drake of looking like an awkward white dude in the "Hotline Bling" video, but perhaps this was his goal all along:

Give actual awkward white dudes a chance to go viral by dancing just like him for a classroom full of appreciative students.

In that case… goal accomplished! Thanks, Drake! Check out this amazing footage now.

Texas Teacher Draws Penis on Student"s Paper, Keeps Job Somehow

Talk about a dick move! Literally!

An El Paso, Texas school teacher is in the news this week because she drew a penis on a student"s assignment, yet will somehow not lose her job as a result of this action.

The student’s mother, Sandra Green, discovered the phallic piece of “art” work on her sons’s social media account and told her local ABC affiliate that Chapin High School language arts teacher Kim Juzdowski admitted to the drawing in a contrite email.

She apparently went through with it the student "wasn’t doing anything in class.” Which we guess is a metaphor for jerking off. 

She gets points for originality. But loses many more points for being totally out of line and possibly a tad mentally unbalanced.

A spokesperson with the  El Paso Independent School District told The Huffington Post that Juzdowski "understands that the drawing was in bad taste and that it was inappropriate for the type of relationship a teacher should have with a student."

That"s reportedly it, however. She will not face any kind of discipline.

Green believes the lack of punishment is rather absurd and is looking to have her son transferred.

And she brings up a pretty good point in the following video report:

Imagine if gender roles were reversed here. Imagine if a male teacher drew a pair of breasts or a vagina on a female student"s paper.

It"s not a question then whether or not the teacher would be fired. It"s only a question of how hard the door would hit him on the way out.

Fifth Grade Teacher Dons Blackface, Dresses Like Kanye West

A fifth grade teacher from Alabama named Heath Morrow has found himself in viral hot water after sharing a photo on Facebook of his 2015 Halloween costume.

It features Morrow dressed up like Kanye West, wearing a gold chain, a backward baseball cap and holding up a sign that touts Kanye’s Presidential run in 2020.

Oh, and did we mention Morrow is rocking blackface to complete his ensemble?

“Haha some people thought Heath was really a black man,” wrote Heath’s wife, Shannon, as a caption to the picture.

She’s dressed up like Kim Kardashian, of course, as you can tell by the extra padding added to her rear end.

Heath is a teacher at Chestnut Grove Elementary School in Decatur and he received so much backlash for this costume that Shannon took the image off Facebook.

A few celebrities out there can relate to Heath, most notably Julianne Hough.

She dressed up as a character from Orange is the New Black last year, having to eventually apologize for painting her face black as part of the outfit.

The blackface on its own is offensive, of course.

But so is the mere notion of anyone wanting to be Kanye and Kim for Halloween.

Come on, people. Can’t we do better than this?!?

View Slideshow: 12 Scandalously Scary Celebrity Halloween Costumes

Teacher Forces Left-Handed Four-Year-Old To Write With Right Hand, Because Being A Lefty Is "Sinister" And Of "The Devil"

This just isn’t right!

A 4-year-old boy in Oklahoma was forced to write with his right hand at school this week.

No, he didn’t break his arm — it’s because his teacher apparently believes his natural left-handed status is evil!

Video: Watch Kim Davis Try To Defend Herself On GMA

The boy, Zayde, and his mother, Alicia Sands, are both surprised by the response of Oakes Elementary School in the small town of Okemah, Oklahoma.

Here’s how it went down: during a homework session last week, Alicia asked Zayde why he was writing with his right hand instead of his left.

Alicia said:

“I just asked ‘Is there anything his teachers ever asked about his hands?’ And he raises [the left] one and says this one’s bad.”

What?!

So Alicia sent a note to the teacher, and got quite a strong response. The educator sent Alicia back an article (Oooh! An article!) calling left-handedness words like “sinister,” “evil,” and “unlucky.”

Alicia wasn’t taking any of it, going to the superintendent to see what could be done. She revealed:

“It breaks my heart for him because someone actually believes that, believes my child is evil because he’s left handed, it’s crazy. There was no suspension of any kind. There was basically nothing done to this teacher. She told them she thought I needed literature on it.”

Now, Alicia is going to put Zayde in another class just two months into his first school year — a weird transition for a kid who just started school, but maybe in the long run, it’ll be better for him… you know, being evil and all…

Check out the whole video (below):

[Image via KFOR.]