<p>Again, I’m a teacher, not a “finger-pointing-Mommy” and I say these teachers acted inappropriately, terribly, unprofessionally…inexcusable.</p>
<p>Whether or not it is fireable depends on their contract language. Untenured teachers won’t be brought back next year, I betcha. Tenured teachers should be judged against the terms in their contract clauses such as “doing egregious harm to children,” etc. Although it’s hard to fire a tenured teacher, it is still do-able for egregious harm (like the teachers who are sexually inappropriate with children, for example).</p>
<p>But if you understand children, you also know that they feel MORE scared, not reassured, when adults --even those in error – are removed from their lives without explanation or a proper farewell. (If you don’t know this from schools, you surely know this from children’s reactions to divorce; they blame themselves when adults leave or are removed). If a student “loved” or even “liked” the teacher before this, which is entirely possible if the teacher was good inside the classroom, and then that teacher is fired, it will make the children who were on the camping trip feel more, not less, secure about their lives. Kids blame themselves for things. So I wasn’t surprised to read the counselor’s report (2 posts above this one) that “children were upset that teachers would not finish out the year.” That is totally in keeping with kids’ psychology.</p>
<p>To help children, it’s best to have the teachers apologize publicly to the children at a school assembly, and to parents at a school board meeting (two SEPARATE functions; no hollering parents allowed at the school assembly, please, it’s not a soccer match). Then, give the children the affirming power to forgive their teachers, if they wish to. Then get on with school. Dock the paychecks as penalty, contract permitting, and require those teachers to attend summer coursework in emergency management, adolescent psychology, and anything else that will retrain their fool heads not to act this way in the future. IMHO.</p>