"Protecting" students from bad teachers (or is it: protecting teachers from bad students...)

Policies that appear to be designed to protect students—removing them from violence in the home, and avoiding the possibility that "bad" teachers can exploit vulnerable students-can become means whereby talk about the violence in students' lives is silenced and isolation is increased. As one student said:

A lot of students would need to feel a little bit closer to a teacher, but didn’t they just pass something that said "students can't email teachers, students can't do anything with teachers out of school" so I don't know how anybody's ever going to get close. You're not going to tell a stranger. You know, if you see them once a day or whatever, you’re not going to tell a stranger about all your problems that you've been through. Now that they're making it even harder, I don't know what you would do…The whole point is, you're not allowed to cross that line anymore... And I know a lot of people-even last year, I was moving out on my own, and one of my teachers, they were selling their cottage. They brought a whole bunch of things from their cottage, and they told another teacher, and they got me some things. And I was so happy, and she gave me her email address, she said "Just let me know how you're doing," 'cause she retired. And then it was really weird, I actually found it and I was about to email her just to let her know I was okay, and how I was doing, and then I heard that thing on the radio, and then I was like "That’s really ridiculous." Because that teacher helped me, she never-it was never anything but helping a student. And she sat there and talked to me about what was going on, and she was a lot of help. And to say that-I would never have told any other teacher, but she knew something, and she'd been my teacher for a while. I think it's ridiculous to say that they're going to be that strict...A lot of teachers, if you can get closer with them they're just human beings like everybody else. (Alternative school English class)