A recent newspaper article made me think of her. I can’t remember her name; this was high school after all. But I remember she used to sit in front of me in history class and talk and talk and talk. Mondays and Fridays were the worst because she’d regale me with tales of what she did on the weekend and then provide details about what she was planning next.

She was a nice girl, but distracting. And our teacher, unfortunately, never had the nerve to confront her. I’m sure I missed some portion of instruction because of her incessant chattering but it was mild compared to a survey released by the West Virginia affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers on Wednesday.

More than a third of teachers and support personnel who were polled felt that disruptive students could negate up to a day of instructional time each week for their classmates simply because of their misbehavior and antics. What’s more, 56 percent of teachers said they felt intimidated by students, 71 percent cited verbal abuse as an issue, and 39 percent of school staff said they have received physical threats.

I don’t remember school being this bad. Well, according to a majority of teachers surveyed it has steadily gotten worse, even within the last year. To address the problem, AFT-West Virginia and the state’s School Service Personnel Association have joined forces and unrolled an initiative that includes teaching students proper behavior and issuing consequences promptly and fairly when students don’t adhere to them.

But it was state Sen. Shirley Love who offered the most bizarre solution, though it apparently drew wide support. “I don’t think that’s the answer to our disciplinary problems,” said AFT President Jody Hale in the Register-Herald, to Love’s plan of returning to corporal punishment. “We’re not prepared to go back to the days of paddling.”

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor