By Siena Small
Pro Procrastinator
Newton Centre, MA –– This past Wednesday, South teacher Ms. Till fell asleep while teaching her A block U.S. History class.
Till was sitting at her desk while showing a Crash Course Youtube video to her students about the least bloody battles in history. Several minutes into the half hour video, Till’s head was resting on her desk; the teacher was fast asleep.
Till’s students did not realize their teacher was asleep until she began snoring at minute 24. Junior Emma Parsons shook her teacher awake.
Till claimed she apologized profusely, saying she had been up late the night before grading papers for all six of the different classes she teaches, which include AP Comparative Government, World History, and U.S. History. Till’s response, though sincere, did not stop her students from feeling upset by their teacher’s behavior.
“I barely got four hours of sleep that night,” Till said. “I still had to wake up at 6:00 A.M. to get to school on time. The school system can’t expect me to do all of this work and get enough sleep each night. It simply is not realistic.”
Junior Amanda Ilsk, one of the students in Till’s A block class, was infuriated by her teacher’s behavior. “[Till] has a responsibility, and that responsibility is to teach her students,” Ilsk said. “Falling asleep during class is disrespectful; she needs to go to sleep earlier.”
Another student of Till’s, a sophomore named Jeremy Slate, made a public post on Facebook about Till’s incident. Slate sympathized with Till, agreeing that the school can not expect teachers to do so much.
“We need to make a change,” said Slate. “ For our teachers’ sake, Newton South needs to open later in the day. At like 8:30 AM or something.”
A week before Till’s experience, two other teachers had fallen asleep at their desks. Both English teacher Mr. Sleepless and Math teacher Ms. Allnighter fell asleep at their desks while teaching classes.
“Most teachers don’t mean to fall asleep at their desks. They want to be here to teach us and learn from us,” said Slate. “But we need to realize that they’re, like, human too.”
Several students in Till’s A block class allegedly planned to tie together Till’s shoelaces to “teach her a lesson,” but plans were brought to a halt when students realized their teacher was wearing slippers.
