Teacher Made a Bad Bet: It’s a Classroom, Not a Card Room

A Skamania County chemistry teacher is on administrative leave after a video surfaced of students in her class pelting another student with koosh balls at the direction of the teacher.

The 15-year-old girl, Zoey Zapf, was being punished for chewing gum in Kem Patteson's Stevenson High School classroom. Patteson ordered the teen to spin the "wheel of misfortune," which has been Patteson's form of dishing out punishment for the past two years.

Zoey found out that she could opt out for lunch detention instead of the "wheel of misfortune," but Patteson told her too bad -- and the girl got pelted anyway.

Zoey stated that the punishment was humiliating.

When I was in high school I was caught passing a note during class. The teacher made me stand in front of the entire class and read the note out loud. It was so embarrassing, not to mention that I was already bullied in school.

My opinion on this may be a little skewed due to the fact that I was bullied and because of the recent student deaths at Naches Valley High School.

Something like what Patteson did as punishment could tip a student into doing something unthinkable.

Do you think this teacher's punishment is appropriate?