Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Boy, don't you ever shower? It is obvious from the first day of class that one of the students has bad body odor. By the end of the third week, you start to realize that the student as Steve. The other students in the class are going to greater and greater lengths to avoid sitting next to him. They mime choking when he sits in the seat in front of them. Any reference to odor or smell in the classroom is met with snickering. Finally, one day after Steve comes in late and sits next to a student in the front row, he turns to Steve and says, "Boy, don't you ever shower?" The class breaks up in hysterics. When should I have intervened? How?, What should I say to student? What should I say to others? Should I confront the class with Steve present? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) It is important to try interventions before there are verbal insults coming from the students. The teacher knew there was a problem from the first day of school and then witnessed students mime choking when the student sat nearby. I would have checked with the guidance counselor to see if there had been any previous documentations of this student having this issue. The guidance counselor might also be aware of any poverty issues going on with the family. If not then I would be the one to address it and use a collaboration of the guidance counselor and the school nurse to help the student understand the consequences of improper hygiene. I would also, before the rude harassment of the other students became verbal, made sure to emphasize my rules against speaking out in class and would remind them of the consequences of breaking that rule. If that student still chose to say that to Steve, then he would have faced those consequences.