Dear Editor,
Recently, I read that a male teacher was being fired for improper behavior with female students. It made me think back to nearly a year-and-a-half ago when the same teacher was being investigated for the same thing. I remember young ladies being asked if the teacher might have done anything improper. Asked “are you sure?” – the students answered “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure.” It felt like a lot of leading.
In the current case, the same male teacher was just trying to stop a fight and keep some female students from harming one another. It sure didn’t sound like that when the superintendent’s article about why he was being fired hit the newspaper.
It made me recall last year when the same teacher was chastised when he showed pictures taken in the times of slavery to a senior American history class. He was told he should have known to tell students the picture would be graphic and they could leave if they didn’t want to see it. So he was told he violated a rule he had no way of knowing existed.
I feel the superintendent treated the teacher unfairly in this case and in the current case acted vindictively.
I would ask school board members to give some thought as to whether this is the type of leader they want running our schools.
Ray Flemming
Marysville