<p>Unfortunately, this article is the tail end of a series of articles that have appeared since the story first broke. She lawyered up and started giving interviews that changed the tone of what she did in her blog. We live in the subject school district, although my son attends one of the other two schools in the district, not the one in which she taught. There is always a mix of kids in any district, but I have to say, overall, the kids here are a great bunch of hard working students, especially those taking honors courses, which she taught.</p>
<p>When the first story appeared in our local paper last week, I wanted to see what was really going on before going out and joining the villagers with their torches. Although she deleted the blog (but later reactivated it but deleted all her previous posts), it was easy to find them in cached form through Google. Basically, this woman doesn’t just have a problem with students, she has a problem with just about everything and everyone. She complained about her colleagues, noting that she ate lunch alone in her room rather than ruining her lunch by eating in the faculty lunchroom. She complained about a fat woman in the grocery store and ranted paragraph after paragraph about what she had in her shopping cart. She made fun of TV personalities for physical attributes that can’t be helped. She made fun of a TV food show host for having so many gay men on her show. There’s not room here to continue listing her negative posts. This is the stuff of a chronic whiner. At age 30, she is basically in the same generation as our high school students. Her blog posts show that she is behaving the way she claims her students have behaved. </p>
<p>And the blog post that started the whole uproar wasn’t even quoted in the above posted article. Here are the things she said she would like to put on her students’ report cards in the comments section:</p>
<p>“Asked too many questions and took too long to ask them. The bell means it’s time to leave!”
“Rude, beligerent, argumentative f___” (Except she spelled out the actual F word.)
“There’s no other way to say this: I hate your kid.”
“A complete and utter jerk in all ways. Although academically ok, your child has no other redeeming qualities”
“Shy isn’t cute in 11th grade; it’s annoying”
“Gimme an A. I. R. H. E. A. D. What’s that spell? Your kid!”
“Nowhere near as good as her sibling. Are you sure they’re related?”</p>
<p>That’s about half the list and not necessarily the worst of it.</p>
<p>She now is claiming that she’s bringing things to light to do good. With regard to her claim that the administration and faculty bend to the parents and students? After 12 years with a child in this district I can tell you the opposite is true. Unless it is something particularly egregious, they staunchly defend their teachers.</p>
<p>She also claims that her blog was anonymous. It wasn’t. Although she signed her first name and only the intial of her last name on each blog post, her picture is displayed on the same page with a link to her complete profile that has her complete name. She also said it was just intended for her friends to read, however, it was published publicly. There is an option to make it private for friends and that is not what she did. Unfortunately, students who were in that class about which she was making the above comments could sort out about whom she was talking. It was very mean spirited.</p>
<p>No district is perfect and we weren’t particularly pleased with some of his early elementary teachers, but aside from that, in general, the high school teachers my son has had in this district have been very conscientious, willing to go the extra mile and the kids respond in kind. We had back-to-school night for the second semester the week before this story broke. My son’s AP Physics teacher couldn’t stop raving about how wonderful the students were in the class and he is not the type to make gratuitous comments.</p>
<p>The curriculum is standardized among the district high schools and they all take the same final exams. My son’s experience with 11th grade Honors English (which is what the complaining teacher taught) was wonderful. His teacher was adored by the class even though she was a tough grader. My son was very disappointed when he couldn’t fit her elective Shakespeare class in his schedule this year. (Perhaps this teacher could mentor the complainer.)</p>
<p>If you would like to read her actual words, google the name of her blog and her name, then click on “cached” for the hits you get. I was able to read about a dozen of her actual blogs this way. It’s very sad that she is now getting a lot of media attention that makes it appear that she is the expert in classroom demographics when in my opinion she is one of the teachers who couldn’t make it in the classroom because rather than making it about her students, she made it about herself.</p>
<p>As a former teacher, I learned early on that respect begets respect.</p>