Principal punched in face by angry parent...

I periodically surf the yahoo news articles and saw the above headline (or something like that). The article didn't give many details other than a male parent entered the school, was arguing with the female principal and then began hitting her in the face. He is now being charged with assault. This story bothers me because something like this can happen, and what bothered me even more was the "comments" afterwards. Many commenters were appalled but many were applauding the hitter and asking "what did the Principal do to create the situation?" as though that mattered. Sad sad sad.... Many people ask me if I intend to go back to teaching. I don't know. I have had 'scary' parent-teacher interviews where I signalled to the teacher at the next table over to 'rescue' me from an aggressive parent. I have had parent meetings that have caused me to cry later on. I didn't just stop teaching because I wanted to be home with my kids (although that was part of it), but also because I was so tired of dealing with the parents of the children I taught. Not all of them. The majority were amazing, supportive people. However, the terrible few, usually the parents of my most challenging students, made the job not worth going back to. At least not for a while.

So I miss the work. I miss the kids. But I don't miss feeling like with some kids I care more about their learning than their parents. And I don't miss being treated like an idiot by people who have a major teacher-hate thing.