Cited Web site is no better than bathroom graffiti.

For 22 years I have spent my life doing what I love best: working with children, hundreds of children. I am sure that of those hundreds, at any given time, there were some who would have said they “didn’t like” me.

Why would they?

I make them spit out their gum. I won’t allow them to be disrespectful toward their peers, themselves, or me. I call their parents if they slack off. I ask them to read, because if they can’t or won’t, I know their futures are in jeopardy.

I struggle to teach them to express themselves in writing, so they can speak for themselves as adults. I give them homework – which they hate – because if they don’t learn to accept responsibility today, how can they support themselves tomorrow?

Now let me tell you why I am writing after a very long day of teaching.

On Thursday, Feb. 8, I read an article entitled “Teacher OK after poisoned coffee scare.” I don’t know this teacher at all, but I was shocked when I read the story about her.

The article stated, “On RateMyTeachers.com [teacher Linda Prescott] is not popular with students.” The article went on to say that after teaching for 27 years, nine of them in Auburn, there were 14 ratings of the teacher on the site since 2003, and 10 were negative.

Over the space of time from 2003 to the present, I would estimate that Ms. Prescott must have dealt with between 400 and 500 students. Given the number of rules that teachers are required to enforce in any given day, if only 10 students had something negative to say about her, I’d say she’s doing her job quite well.

I decided to check out this Web site which the Sun Journal used for documentation. I found, to my surprise, that my school – the Carrie Ricker Middle School in Litchfield – is also on the site. I also discovered that of 21 student ratings of teachers, three were for teachers who no longer teach here, two were ratings for “teachers” who are actually seventh- and eighth-grade students, and one rated a teacher named “Hot Cheese” with a number five.

In other words, this Web site has about as much validity as graffiti on a bathroom wall. We teach our middle-level students that when writing a paper, they must use valid and reliable sources, or the work will need to be done over.

We teach them to look carefully at who has published the Web site, and to determine whether that person or organization is showing a bias or has “an ax to grind.” We should expect as much professionalism from the press

And the editors of the paper, who are ultimately responsible for its content, should demand a higher standard than what was shown in that article.

The article said Ms. Prescott “doesn’t want the students involved vilified by the community.” Ms. Prescott herself said, “These are kids who are really young.” It seems ironic the very teacher the Sun Journal said was unpopular with her students would defend them after they put a toxic substance in her coffee.

It’s a shame the Sun Journal did not use as much concern and professionalism when writing about this teacher, as the educator herself has shown for her students.

Cheryl Ellis is a teacher at the Carrie Ricker Middle School in Litchfield. She lives in Monmouth.