http://www.nbc10.com/news/11216881/detail.html
Injured Teacher: 'I Don't Understand It'
Burd Says He Will Return To Classroom
POSTED: 10:38 pm EST March 9, 2007
UPDATED: 11:02 pm EST March 9, 2007
PHILADELPHIA -- A veteran teacher who had his neck broken, allegedly by two students over an iPod, talked to NBC 10 News on Friday about the recent violence in Philadelphia schools.
Frank Burd, who is being treated at the Moss Rehabilitation Center, said just moving is a challenge these days.
"Some mornings I feel I can do this -- I can do this," he said. "I get so excited."
The 60-year-old Germantown High School teacher spends more than four hours a day in intensive physical and speech therapy.
"They're helping me put my arm in the sleeves in shirts," Burd said. "They want to encourage me to eat by myself. "
Two weeks ago, Burd was attacked by two students after he took an iPod from one of them in math class.
"I picked up the iPod and walked away," Burd said. "I didn't remember anything after that except a fleeting moment in the ambulance and being in the hospital and waking up. I don't understand it, how somebody could do something like this."
When Burd woke up, doctors told him he had several broken bones in his neck. Since surgery, he's worn a halo to stabilize his neck, and a vest supports his chest and back. Doctors said the combination must be a part of his recovery for at least three months.
"Everything hurts when you lay on a pillow," Burd said.
Burd, a 23-year teaching veteran, has taught math and theater at Germantown High School at total of 10 years, and he described his devices in a theatrical way, NBC 10 reported.
"It's so odd to me," Burd said. "It looks like some kind of torture out of the Middle Ages, and they hurt a lot."
Burd also said he is hurting emotionally, wondering why one 11th-grader he knew and a ninth-grader he did not know would push and punch him.
"The one who punched, I don't even know what or why," Burd said. "The kid I do know who knows I care about him, I don't understand it."
Burd said he believed the Philadelphia school system should keep troublemakers out of the classroom, away from students who want to learn and teachers who want to help teach.
"If someone has done something of a violent nature, they should not return," Burd said.
When asked if he planned to return to the school, Burd said he would be back.
"The school is my family; the kids I teach are my family," Burd said. "I'm not there to help my family."
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