Portsmouth school principal allegedly fired two teachers over pizza party

WTKR- TV ^ | January 5, 2010 | News Channel 3

[republicangel]

Portsmouth parents are speaking out about a school principal who allegedly fired two teachers over a pizza party.

The parents gathered together in the cold weather outside Portsmouth Catholic School Tuesday night to demand answers from the administration on why two of their favorite teachers are no longer employed.

NewsChannel 3 met exclusively with a group of parents Monday night, just hours after they said two teachers were fired because they held a Christmas pizza lunch.

The parents say the new school principal banned any parties during the school day, but argue that the teachers simply brought pizza in for the lunch hour.

"We want someone from the Diocese now!" one parent demanded.

[republicangel]

I heard this story last night before falling asleep. Did not realize until this morning that it was a CATHOLIC school. It has a new "NO CHRISTMAS PARTY" rule. What the heck is wrong with this picture?

[Thrownatbirth]

If it was a Friday, I hope they ordered anchovies.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I had to go into a lot of other links on the page to learn that this happened in VIRGINIA (I think). It was hard to tell in the story because place names given are common in other states, i.e. Portsmouth, Hampton, etc.

[youturn]

Mr. Hand: Am I hallucinating here? Just what in the hell do you think you're doing?

Jeff Spicoli: Learning about Cuba, and having some food.

[youturn]

I have a brother in Portsmouth, Ohio. Anything Portsmouth jumps out at me so I had the same problem. I did notice something on the page about Hampton Roads and somewhere in the story Richmond was mentioned. I finally put 2 and 2 together.

[Truth29]

This sounds like a situation where more direct action is warranted. Schools can be very resistant to parent pressure and lock parents out of any meaningful process. The parents might consider picketing outside the principal’s house, getting local media to try to interview him on the sidewalk, taking out the trash, etc. If that doesn't work, get heavy donors to withhold funds until their issues are resolved, and so forth. A standard school tactic is to drag out the process until everyone gets tired. The counter strategy is to keep escalating until the cost of the decision is greater than any reversal or compromise.

[panaxanax]

I feel as if we have entered a parallel universe where up is down and right is wrong. The absurd has become the norm. It’s the PC that is to blame. Americans are becoming a bunch of mamby-pamby hysterical panty-waste babies.

This statement will certainly cause many to flame me, I don’t freaking care.

The problem is that we have too many sensitive liberals in charge, too many women running the show, emasculated Metro-sexual “men” shaving their bodies and using “body-wash”, as a nation, we have become a bunch of pussies. It’s time for America to “man-up” and quit acting like teen-age girls having their first period. People will try to talk tough but they won’t take a real stand and yank their kids from the school.

Wow, that felt good!

[karatemom]

As a teacher, I know parental support is so important. How blessed those teachers are that the parents would show up en masse to support them.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Yes, but there is a Richmond, TX. By clicking on other links on the original page, I found Norfolk and finally Virginia in an ad. Whatever happened to the journalistic rule of 5 Ws? Who, What, When, Where, Why?

My daughter is currently working as a long term substitute in a Catholic school in the Richmond diocese while the regular teacher is on maternity leave. That is why I was curious.

[republicangel]

Sorry about the confusion on place.

[republicangel]

Unfortunately, in Portsmouth, VA, there are not a lot of good options for parents.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Not your fault (on the omission of place). This is the fault of the original reporter. I see it happen all the time these days. Local news forgets that their stories are picked up and read all over the Internet. We used to have something called “Dateline” where the Date and Place of the story is mentioned in the header. THat is missing in this report.

[DH]

Our reporters of today have completely forgotten the most basic rule of reporting...the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, and why). They are more interested in telling what their view of the news is and only what they want you to know.

[PLMerite]

“I feel as if we have entered a parallel universe where up is down and right is wrong.”

I’m always in the parallel universe where things suck, never where I’m the god-king.

I liked your rant.

[panaxanax]

“I liked your rant.”

Thanks, so did I.

I’m not in very good mood this morning. Working on my snowblower until 11:00 last night and back up at 4 this morning only to read that two teachers got fired for buying their students a pizza. What has become of my country?

[BornToBeAmerican]

Flame you??? I would applaud you for telling it the way it is.

[Bean Counter]

Do you have any frackin’ clue as to how many towns in the world are named “Portsmouth”??

Again, and again, and again: Nobody can tell where this story takes place, and as a result the story is almost meaningless.

[Ratman83]

Your shoukld read the story the first line is

“Portsmouth, Va. - Portsmouth parents are speaking out about a school principal who allegedly fired two teachers over a pizza party.”

And the poster has the state under keywords.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Flame you for posting what most of us were thinking anyway??

Nuh uh!

[panaxanax]

“..too many women running the show..”

I thought this part would at least bring some heat from the ladies. Apparently they agree.

Thanks...panax