Teacher Fired For Giving Zeroes to Students Who Didn’t Turn in Work
We're getting to the point where even the kids probably think that society coddles them too much. A teacher in St. Lucie, Florida was just fired for giving students zeroes.
52-year-old Diane Tirado has been teaching for seventeen years, most recently as an eighth grade social studies teacher at West Gate K-8 School. At the beginning of the school year she assigned her class to create an "explorer's notebook."
Two weeks later, she was collecting the project and some students didn't turn them in. As anyone would expect a teacher to do, she gave those students zeroes. On September 14th she was fired for it.
Diane left a goodbye message for her class on the whiteboard: "Bye Kids, Mrs. Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50% for not handing anything in."
The school apparently has a policy against giving students grades lower than 50%. How can you give somebody a 50% score when there's nothing to grade? Students agree with their teacher and even showed support on her Facebook post, "You showed me to be responsible for my work and the things that I do."
The school district hasn't backed down and stands by their decision. They released the following statement:
"Ms. Tirado was released from her duties as an instructor because her performance was deemed substandard and her interactions with students, staff and parents lacked professionalism and created a toxic culture on the school’s campus. Her dismissal was not a result of grading issues."
Read more at Orlando Sentinel.