Story Archive

Listen More Often

Lauren Austin, 14, was in Claire Wilder’s class in Chester County (Tenn.) High School. Austin asked Wilder a question, but didn’t understand the answer. “I asked her again what to do, and she got frustrated,” Austin said. “She was like yelling at me, telling me I need to listen more often.” Wilder then went into the hallway, where a criminal justice instructor was passing by with a pink foam toy gun. Wilder allegedly took the mock gun, pointed it at Austin, pulled the trigger, said she wished the gun was real, and gave the gun back to the instructor. Lauren told her mother, Kari Austin, about the incident, and Kari immediately told school authorities. “I have not said anything about the incident up to this point because I took it the teacher would be fired,” Kari said. Chester County Schools Superintendent Cherrie Pipkin says the teacher was “joking,” and notes “There was an investigation, appropriate action was taken, and the teacher has been disciplined.” That didn’t satisfy the mom. “If my daughter had done this to a teacher, there would have been 180 days’ [suspension] regardless of the trouble she would have been in,” she says. (MS/Jackson Sun) ...But now your daughter has learned the important lesson of double standards.