Students? What Students?

Here’s a story for those well-meaning relatives and friends who tell us we shouldn’t be homeschooling our children because we aren’t certified teachers.

You know what bugs me the most about this story?

It’s not the fact that this fifth-grade teacher sent 3800+ emails over the course of 169 school days. (At a rate of one minute per email, that’s 57 hours of paid work time.)

It’s not the fact that her emails often referred to her drunken exploits and sexual encounters.

It’s not the fact that she was on prescription drugs for anxiety, bragged about them and even referred to one drug as her “security blanket,” according to my local newspaper.

It’s not the fact that she and her coworkers often shared these prescription drugs with each other, even in school, where they’re supposed to be teaching children.

It’s not the fact that most of her fellow teachers were afraid of her, with one stating, “This woman is capable of doing anything.” (Again, this from my local newspaper.)

It’s not even the fact that she complained about teaching being “just such a waste of time with the dummies,” or that her comments about her job included a list of phrases she used to refer to her job, such as “hate it here today,” “really do wish I cared” and “this is a day of torture.”

No, what really gets me is that school officials investigated this woman for a full year, through January 2010, suspended her from teaching in February (when they escorted her out of the building), but never fired her! Instead, they pussy-footed around until they finally got her to resign last week, after postponing a meeting where they had planned to “consider” terminating her.

Good grief! School officials were so concerned about playing CYA that they put their personal protection against lawsuits before the protection of the students. This woman worked for the school district for 14 years. Yet it took a year and a half to get rid of her, and in the end, school officials didn’t have to do the dirty deed themselves.

Where is the concern for the children? Considering this woman’s attitude toward her job, not to mention her drug and alcohol issues, how likely is it that she treated her students kindly and fairly, much less taught them anything? Is it any surprise that parents continue to pull their children out of the public schools and homeschool them?

3 thoughts on “Students? What Students?

  1. Probably between her being tenured and the teachers union they were not able to fire her, that is why they kept putting it off. Very sad, makes me wonder again how is it that I am not qualified to teach 1st grade to my children? Having worked in the public school system and having to deal with the politics and games, I think that most people would be appaled to find out how the teachers really act, especially to each other and other adults.

  2. Agreed, Karen 🙂

    You’re probably right, Teresa. To me that’s one big sign right there that the system is messed up!

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