If a child HITS me, then you damned sure WILL see me on the ten o'clock news, because I intend to hit that mofo BACK ... be it YOUR child, MY child, or ANYONE else's.
These kids are larger than I am. The LAST thing I'm going to do is lose control within the confines of my classroom, because they think they can talk to me in any way, or do to me whatever they want.
I teach the worst children in the building. I'm the only one my team who has NOT been verbally (or attempted physically) assaulted by students or parents. The kid who wanted me to touch that pen was doing that as a JOKE, because, to quote him, "I would NEVER do anything like that to you on purpose, Mrs. Hegwood. You kinda crazy."
Just today, I took up a little boy's chain, because they were playing with it in class. He tried to get it from the little girl I told to give it to me, and she said, "You haven't been here long enough to know, but she told me to give it to HER, and I'm going to give it to HER. She'll give it back eventually."
And there it is.
My kids know how I feel about them. I treat them with respect. I expect it back. Furthermore, I never said I wanted to hit him. I do believe what I said was:
because my natural instinct would have been to try to throw that pen through his chest.
That might not have been your intrinsically holier than my instinct, but that sure as HELL is what I'd have done that day, TOday, or ANY other day. The circumstance, in my opinion, would have gone FAR above and beyond "Gee, that wasn't so nice, now was it?"
But whatever. You have your opinion. I have mine.
Get in a classroom. Teach some of the children I've taught during the last 10 years. Then tell me how to do my job.