How many ways can you choke a kid, anyway?

It's a shame that A) Susan Burke teaches in Maryland and not D.C., and B) She wasn't arrested a year ago, because Michelle Rhee would have had a field day with this story if it had occurred in a District school when she was here. A teacher who allegedly choked and punched half the students in her class? That's the kind of bogeyman Rhee could have used to get rid of another hundred or so teachers.

This seems like an open-and-shut case, and it's not likely to be as interesting to the public as when a female teacher is caught having sex with a male student (which seems to be happening a lot more frequently these days, and which guys will only grudgingly admit is a crime, even as we resist the urge to high-five the victims), so it'll probably fade quickly.

But for now, it's still in the news and last night, WJLA did a story on it. At one point a reporter--I didn't catch who--was talking to one of the children who was allegedly abused by Burke. The reporter asked her what had happened.

Girl: "She choked me." WJLA reporter: "Show me how." And she did:

Okay, setting aside the wisdom in making an abuse victim--especially one her age--recreate the abuse on herself for no particularly good reason, how is this a question that needed to be asked?!? (And it was actually more like a command, which would seem to make it worse.)

We all know what choking is. What the fuck did the reporter think she was going to do? Wrap both of her hands around her throat and violently start shaking herself? Pull out a garrote, like in a James Bond film, slide it around her neck, and pull? What precise example of choking was he looking for?

Did he think that maybe the kids are lying, and tried to lay a clever trap, hoping that the girl wouldn't know what choking actually was and she'd start biting herself or something?

Did he think the image would look good on his reel when it's time for local Emmy submissions?

Thank God he didn't ask her to demonstrate on herself how she'd been punched.