California teacher faces charges after forcibly cutting a student's hair while singing anthem

[47of74]

This happened in California

Quote

A California high school teacher has lost her job and is facing multiple criminal charges after cellphone video emerged showing her forcibly cutting a student's hair while belting out an incorrect rendition of the National Anthem.

Margaret Gieszinger, 52, a former teacher at University Preparatory High School in Visalia, faces six criminal misdemeanor charges -- one count of false imprisonment, two counts of cruelty to a child, two counts of battery, and one count of assault. She could serve up to three and a half years in prison if she is convicted on all charges, according to the Tulare County district attorney's office.

Cellphone video posted to Reddit on Wednesday shows Gieszinger call a male student student to the front of the class. She makes him sit, then cuts chunks of his hair while singing "The Star-Spangled Banner," transposing verses as she sings.

The student moves away, and Gieszinger holds the scissors above her head, demanding that another student come to the front of the class. She can be heard telling students that someone will be chosen if no one volunteers. Gieszinger begins to sing again and darts between desks, lunging at a female student. Gieszinger pulls the female student's long hair to the side as she attempts to cut it. The student yells at her to stop, then joins others fleeing the room.

Of course this former teacher's husband has chimed in about how it's "out of character" for her.

Article doesn't say if she's a Branch Trumpvidian but if she was it would not surprise me.

[CTRLZero]

I read another article where the husband blames it on stress.  Apparently she's had her credentials suspended twice before.  I'd be interested in what happened in those instances.  Anyway, I'm glad no one was severely injured.  How scary to be confronted by a teacher with a sharp implement. 

[Glasgowghirl]

This teacher reminds me of Miss Trunchbull from Matilda, she definitely needs to banned from teaching again and I would not let her be around kids unsupervised.

[Briefly]

I read that a few days ago but I didn't think about posting it here.  I got the feeling that she has mental illness issues or at least some type of breakdown must have happened.  It must have been pretty scary for the students.

[AmazonGrace]

Asking for random haircut volunteers instead of focusing on  certain students whose hair she thought objectionable makes it seem  like some sort of a mental breakdown. .  

Still, you'd think the husband might have seen some kind of warning signs beforehand.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/08/us/california-haircut-teacher/index.html

says she had her credentials suspended in 2007 and 2016 so it doesn't seem like it came totally out of the blue and she always was a model teacher before this week.

[Terrie]

She had a few incidents leading up to this final meltdown. https://abc30.com/teacher-had-meltdown-in-class-days-before-scissors-incident-say-students/4851074/. Action should have been taken gefore this.

I do hope she doesn't go to jail, because it's clear that she needs medical help, not punishment. I feel bad for the students, bad for her, and annoyed with her husband and the school who didn't address it at the first incident.

[Glasgowghirl]

19 minutes ago, Terrie said:

 

I do hope she doesn't go to jail, because it's clear that she needs medical help, not punishment. I feel bad for the students, bad for her, and annoyed with her husband and the school who didn't address it at the first incident.

Agreed, I don't think jail or prison will help her, if anything it will make her worse. Why was she not given better treatment when the incident in 2007 happened and after the 2016 incident she should have not been allowed to teach again. Her husband seems in denial. This could have been avoided.

 

[Mama Mia]

On 12/10/2018 at 7:14 AM, Glasgowghirl said:

Agreed, I don't think jail or prison will help her, if anything it will make her worse. Why was she not given better treatment when the incident in 2007 happened and after the 2016 incident she should have not been allowed to teach again. Her husband seems in denial. This could have been avoided.

 

It’s always so tough with mental health issues. Obviously I know nothing about the specifics —- but it’s entirely possible the earlier incidents led to her getting some sort of diagnosis and treatment - but that doesn’t always lead to on-going stability. 

I think, IME, that we, as a society, have the perception that addressing the issue and getting and taking medication as prescribed will make everyone with a serious mental health issue “ok”.  That just isn’t always the case. And then we tend to act like the person just didn’t follow instructions, or missed doses, or something. But there are times when the medication stops working, or doesn’t work well enough, or even it’s the medication ITSELF causes the psychotic break/ haullucinations/ loss of impulse control. She also could have had a change in meds, or - as is common as you get older - started a new, totally unrelated medication - for blood pressure or cholesterol or a menopause symptoms - or a dozen other things - that caused a bad interaction. We just don’t know.  

As far as the husband, maybe with the earlier incidents, they were more in line with “you really need to get the stress under control, that was out-of-line” ,  maybe easily angered, or a little paranoid, but nothing so clearly dangerous and bizarre. 

Obviously she shouldn’t be teaching. 

A close family member had a very volatile type of bipolar disorder when I was growing up. The line of when she went from “ different” to “ needing help” to “completely detached from reality and maybe dangerous” was not at all clear cut or continuous. 

 

 

[Glasgowghirl]

@Mama Mia agreed as a depression sufferer myself, I find doctors are quick his to hand out pills and don't offer aftercare or counselling as often as they should. I know Doctors are under pressure and waiting lists for counselling are long and expensive if you want to go private. 

[Mama Mia]

9 minutes ago, Glasgowghirl said:

@Mama Mia agreed as a depression sufferer myself, I find doctors are quick his to hand out pills and don't offer aftercare or counselling as often as they should. I know Doctors are under pressure and waiting lists for counselling are long and expensive if you want to go private. 

Definitely. And there are SO many variables.  We had a big news story in my area a few years ago about a man with no history of any mental imbalance, who was described as a sweet, loving man, who tried to murder his family with an axe. There was some sort of hallucination involved. The cause turned out to be a new diabetes medication that he reacted horribly to! The wife had tried to take him to the ER when he began seeming confused and out-of-it, and they did nothing and sent him home, telling him to make an appointment with his GP.  Really, really sad. Fortunately, everyone survived. But horrificly terrifying,

[unsafetydancer]

On 12/19/2018 at 11:50 AM, Glasgowghirl said:

I find doctors are quick his to hand out pills and don't offer aftercare or counselling as often as they should. I know Doctors are under pressure and waiting lists for counselling are long and expensive if you want to go private. 

Pretty much yes to all this. Every time I have gone to seek help for obvious problems that I have I have been offered a pharmacy-load of pills. I find them worse than useless, they impair my concentration and make me unable to do basic tasks. I'm not a fan.

When I was in school I had a teacher who went off the rails, he started talking to plants in his room and freaked out when one of them died. I think he retired a couple of years later due to not being able to cope.

[clueliss]

Now we have reports of a wrestling referee cutting some kid’s hair.  Sorry, no link.  

[HarryPotterFan]

7 hours ago, clueliss said:

Now we have reports of a wrestling referee cutting some kid’s hair.  Sorry, no link.  

I heard about that. The referee decided the kid’s dreadlocks were too long or some nonsense, and ordered someone to cut the kid’s hair. The family has a lawyer and it’s being investigated as racially motivated. An aquaintance who wrestled in high school said if someone’s hair is too long you just put it in a cap. There was no reason to cut his hair other than to humiliate him. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lawyer-n-j-wrestler-who-was-forced-cut-dreadlocks-blames-n951666

Edit: 

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but the referee refused again because his hair “wasn’t in its natural state” and referred to his dreadlocks as “braids,"

Well that’s pretty much textbook racism

[Terrie]

Said referee was previously accused of calling a black referee a "racial slur" (and if they won't say which one, three guesses on what he said).