And they wonder why they can't get good teachers to stay.....

[DaSharkie]

So you suspend, then harrasss and demote a teacher who :eek: holds kids to a high standard, pushes them to do better, and improve their lives. No wonder the system is broken...........


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17874261/?GT1=9145


Teacher who wouldn’t raise grades gets reward
School district must pay $1.4 million after it suspended, demoted her


Updated: 2:50 p.m. ET March 30, 2007
BATON ROUGE, La. - A Louisiana school system must pay more than $1.4 million to an English teacher who was suspended and demoted after refusing to change the D’s and F’s she gave to 70 percent of her students, a federal jury has found.

The jury of four men and five women deliberated almost four hours before finding that the school board, superintendent and the principal at West Feliciana High School had harassed Paula Payne, violated her First Amendment rights and retaliated against her.

Payne said, "I'm just so thankful the truth is known."

Jurors awarded her $1.2 million for mental anguish and $200,000 in punitive damages.

The lawsuit filed two years ago said the teacher, who had worked for 16 years, was suspended and demoted because she refused to change the low grades and told her story to a television station.

School system administrators said they never asked her to change any grades. Superintendent Lloyd Lindsey said she was suspended for five days in November 2004 because she refused to meet with administrators unless a Louisiana Education Association representative was there.

Until she resigned in 2005, Payne taught English at the school in St. Francisville, where students called her class the "House of Payne" because of her high expectations.

In the first six weeks of the fall 2004 semester, court documents show, she gave 70 percent of the school's 180 sophomores a “D” or an “F” in English II. The low scores conflicted with those same students' grades in other subjects as well as English grades for freshmen, juniors and seniors.

Payne's lawsuit said principal Michael Thornhill told her that if she would not change the grades, she would be assigned to teach in the behavior modification clinic for troubled students. Louisiana law bars any principal, superintendent or school board member from influencing or altering a student's grade.

In January 2005, the West Feliciana School Board suspended her for 45 days for willful neglect of duty. When she returned to the high school, she was assigned to be a library monitor and given tutoring classes with no students. She taught only two English classes.

Payne now teaches English to inmates at Dixon Correctional Center.

Asked whether she would consider returning to teach in Louisiana public schools, Payne said she would not.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[emt161]

Asked whether she would consider returning to teach in Louisiana public schools, Payne said she would not.

And that, folks, is the real loss here.

[CaptainGonzo]

The whole concept of "making kids feel good about themselves, we are all the same, self esteem building bulls***" is preparing the next generation for failure.

What should be taught is "sorry, kids... but here are the facts...it's a dog eat dog world, and if you don't study hard and work to succeed, you might as well be wearing milk bone underwear, because the world will bite you on the ass, chew you up and either swallow you up or spit you out!"

[FireLt1951]

Same thing happen to my daughter in Palm Beach County, Florida. She was a high school math (advanced algebra and calculus) teacher and refused to change failing grades to passing ones. They wanted her to lower the grade curve ( she didn't even want to use a a curve but was required) so a larger percentage of students would pass the class. They decided then that they didn't need her anymore at the end of the semester not long after she refused to change the grades. The dumbing down of America is in full swing and it's going to cost us dearly.

[ant195]

Guys I was in this boat along with thousands of other teachers around the US. I taught Math for 2 years and the things I saw from with in would make you shake your heads with dissbeliefe. First off I want to define a term before I begin. School System = the administration at top level down but not including the teachers!!!!


The school systems around the country by all means want to do what is best for the student but have to look out for numero UNO. If they dont make the grades, they dont get improvement, they get canned and someone else is picked up to try their hand in education. IF they dont make the grades they also loose federal funding and get branded as a low performing school! No body wants to send their kid to a school that is branded as low performing!!


School systems have gotten away from the idea that you have to earn all you get in life. They are more worried about bruising a young ego, or making a kid feel bad because they f-dup. I got a memo while I was teaching that stated I should refrain from marking wrong questions with red ink because it was to harsh and would hurt kids feelings. A week later there were no red correction pens or markers in the school supply cash only BLUE. I kept marking my test in red and was talked to twice about it! What does this say about what a school deems important.
They constrict kids feedoms in schools not allowing them to leave the school, or walk the halls durring freeperids but ask them to act like adults every chance they get. Who can act like an adult if everyone around you is treating you like a child!!
The schools coddle students by nagging students to do their homework giving them extentions on projects all the while instilling in them the crap for work ethics many youngsters have today. Kids believe they dont have to work hard to get what they want, because all they have to do is make an excuese and they get off scott free.
Its never a kids fault there is alway a reason for their behavior the list goes on and on. Untill the schools revert back to the idea that they are a learning institution and not a psyc ward, this trend is only going to get worse.

As a new teacher in many school systems you have very little job security. Untill you make tenure most times 4-7 years you can be let go fairly easily. In this time frame alot of the new and ambitious teachers have to conform or get let go like FIRELT1951's daughter. They dont have job security and rocking the boat is most likely going to get the thrown out. So these teachers come in and the life and ambition get sucked out of them in this time and they forget what they wanted to accomplish when the started and become one of the schools lackies.

I treated my students like adults every day, and they could not be happier. The administration and parents thought I was too hard on them and I just got fed up. You can only bang you head agains a wall for so long before you start to bleed so I left. I still to this day get emails from students about how they loved my classes and the way I treated them. Its a good feeling but I could never have been in that enviornment for the rest of my life. I would have gone crazy!!