At 12:15pm on May 10, 2016, a Kindergarten child at Heathcote Elementary School, A Kindergarden student Sammy, was upset because he wanted to lead the line out for recces . The Teacher Aide said “no”, and he began to cry and hit the aide. This is not uncommon, on May 16, 2016 at 12:35, one first grader was fighting another student and an aide tried to stop the fighting, but one first grader yelled at the teacher aide and told her to “stay out of it”. Kids are not treating Lunch Aides with the respect they deserve.
Both students and aides were interviewed about the treatment of lunch aides. The kids believe that they themselves treat the aides with a lot of respect. When asked the question “Do you think other kids in your grade are disrespectful to teacher aides?”, some kids said yes and some said no. The aides were given the question “How do you think kids treat you in the lunchroom?”. The answers were similar. Most said that the kids are disrespectful and believe them to be at a lower level (than their teachers). Why do we think this is? One of the most common answers from aides is that they have no say in the student’s report cards.
The Lunch Aides at Heathcote Elementary School have no way to communicate with parents. Perhaps if they had way of reporting the student’s behavior, the children may give them more respect. If the teacher’s aides could send home weekly reports or even be given space on the student’s report cards, the children would then think more of their behavior.