Back in 2008, a kindergarten teacher in St. Lucie County, Fla., forced one of her pupils to stand before the class and be told why the other pupils “hated him,” according to news accounts. She then allowed fellow kindergartners to vote the 5-year-old boy, who has since been diagnosed with autism, out of the class.
The child’s mother sued, and recently won a $350,000 settlement with the school board and the teachers union.
But after a one-year suspension, the teacher was reinstated to a classroom position in a different school in the county – and her tenure was reinstated!
We have no doubt that many students misbehave. We also understand why a teacher would get frustrated by that misbehavior, and we lament that so many of these types of disagreements wind up in court.
But it is troubling, to say the least, that a teacher who treated a child as the child in Florida was treated – and who cost the school district $350,000 – would not only be provided a new job in the school system but would regain her tenure.
It is no wonder that there is a growing movement in the United States for charter schools and other forms of school choice that reduce the influence of teachers unions and tenure policies.