Posted on 02/01/2005 5:52:33 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Teacher's bizarre behavior comes to light
The Pine Grove Elementary teacher mooned her colleagues at a staff meeting before she was fired, records show. They also reported she yelled at her students.
ABHI RAGHUNATHAN Published February 1, 2005
BROOKSVILLE - Susan Bartlett's fellow teachers at Pine Grove Elementary School tolerated her behavior for months, even as it grew more bizarre.
A kitchen manager said Bartlett, 34, dropped a joint and reeked of marijuana smoke when she walked in on her at the school one morning in May 2004, according to Bartlett's personnel file. But the employee, Debra McDow, didn't report the incident until October because she said she feared getting in trouble.
Another colleague remembered Bartlett yelling, and wrote that she was "out of control not only at her students but at other staff members." Still other school employees wrote to district officials that Bartlett frequently burped loudly to disrupt meetings.
But in September, Bartlett's colleagues decided she finally crossed the line.
According to district records, she mooned her colleagues at a staff meeting and later refused to take a drug test, prompting officials to terminate her in November.
Although district officials fired Bartlett, there is no record they reported the account of her suspected drug use to law enforcement authorities. District spokesman Roy Gordon said there would have been insufficient evidence for the authorities to investigate the matter since so much time had elapsed.
"We always investigate any type of report made to us," said Hernando Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Donna Black. "Whether we could have proven it - that's another matter."
After she was fired, Bartlett contested the penalty. But in January, her attorney withdrew a request for a formal hearing before the state Division of Administrative Hearings.
(Excerpt) Read more at sptimes.com ...
Sounds like a real piece o' work.
Sounds like a DUer and demoncRAT voter.
...school employees wrote to district officials that Bartlett frequently burped loudly to disrupt meetings.
Guess that makes her a burping moonbat...
Is it me or does it seem to be a requirement to get a teaching degree that one be a full fledged lunatic anymore?
Belching mooner alert!
I'll bet she's butt ugly.
Yup, teaching will do that to ya....
sundero
[I know this is a gross generalization, and not meant to impugn any Freepers who teach for the right reasons.]
[But flame away anyway. Asbestos suit on.]
I take it she made an ass of herself?
Hey summer, was this anyone you know?
Haven't seen you around much lately.
I'm not going to flame you for that. Alot of people believe it, and there are enough teachers out there doing stupid things to make it seem true.
I can only tell you that the 5 years I taught (after I raised my kids and went back to school to get a teaching cert in addition to my degree) I met some teachers who were excellent, some who were average, and some who probably shouldn't be doing any job without alot of supervision. The biggest problem is that there is no real merit based incentive for teachers to do a good job. They make the same pay as any other teacher in their district who has taught the same length of time. And you cannot always look at their students to know if they are doing a good job either. We are frequently asked to make silk purses out of pig's ears. I don't know the answer. But I've given up ever getting any respect for my chosen profession. That's ok tho, I didn't go into teaching to impress anyone or get pats on the back.
susie
Dave's not here, man.
thanks for your candor. One key perspective is to look at the generational differences between teachers today and teachers who began their career in the 1950s and early 1960s. Teachers back then didn't have an ideological agenda; they just loved children and wanted to educate them, not indoctrinate them. Teachers back then didn't care about the highest wage jobs, so talented men and women taught because the job was respected and the salary was good enough -- in many cases, good enough to raise a family on.
Below-average students did not attend high school. This is the source of most education graduates today -- those who of a previous generation would never have attended a university.
Education wasn't politicized back then.
State and Federal money didn't come with strings.
I could go on for hours. The three tom h children are all in private school, at great sacrifice to the Mrs and I. If we had to, we'd home school.
Merit pay is a joke in any nonmarket enterprise and a particularly perverse joke in a government organization whose members do not face election.There is no market and thus no measure of merit possible.
You've really hit the nail on the head re: merit pay for teachers. I have no idea how you would do it because you don't really put out a measurable product (I am not against testing, but it doesn't nec tell you if the teacher was good, bad or indifferent, for the most part).
I don't have a solution. I just understand the problem!
sundero
Shucks. That's easy. Just wait for the moon to come out.
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