Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Teachers not free to say they dislike their pupils?

Given this recent story about an inner city school in NYC, I would be surprised if any teacher there felt differently. But it is obviously a mistake to be honest about such feelings.
An arbitrator upheld the firing of a veteran Brooklyn teacher over a sarcastic Facebook post suggesting she'd be glad if her students drowned. Christine Rubino posted the comment on June 23, 2010, the day after a 12-year-old Harlem girl, Nicole Suriel, drowned on a Long Island school trip.

"After today, I'm thinking the beach sounds like a wonderful idea for my 5th graders. I HATE THEIR GUTS! They are all the devils spawn!" fumed the 38-year-old teacher at PS 203 in Flatlands.

Rubino insisted her insensitive comments were harmless, made in anger over misbehavior by her pupils. She also argued the postings were private and protected by freedom of speech. But arbitrator Randi Lowitt found Rubino guilty of conduct unbecoming a teacher.

Source

I am inclined to think that the woman would win her case on First Amendment grounds if she appealed it far enough

8 comments:

sig said...

If you post it on the Internet, and it is somehow tied to you personally, it will follow you forever.

This is just another example of an "educator" who is significantly less educated than her students.

Anonymous said...

She obviously has a First Amendment case here. Also, since this is NYC, the communist teachers union won't protect her since she's White (and) a non-Jew. In NYC, that makes you an almost-criminal.

Also, her Flatlands (Brooklyn) school and surrounding neighborhood is about 99.999% black, so her feelings are easily understood by anyone in NYC. Young blacks here are totally out-of-control.

Anonymous said...

Although she had every right to make the post, I don't think this is the kind of person we want educating our children.

Anonymous said...

No. We want responsible, educated, competent people teaching our kids who can exercise self-control and actually be adult. Unfortunately, we are stuck with either incompetent and ignorant people who don't act like adults, or we have Politically Correct liberals with twisted agendas.

Anonymous said...

Anon. 12:05 - so you want better people teaching those kids than are producing and raising them?

Anonymous said...

Not Anon 12:05, but yes. It would be nice even though it's not likely to have people who are better than the parents teaching.

It would be nice to have better parents too but also not likely.

It is definite though that no one who actually hates children should be left in a position of teaching them. The teacher in question has revealed herself and needs to find herself a different vocation, I'm sure it's only cowardice at the possibility which has kept her from quitting and moving on already.

Anonymous said...

The teachers blame the parents and the parents blame the teachers for their poorly raised children. Meanwhile the reject children of heterosexual sex are dumped on gays who want to adopt, while those nice white hetero couples who want a new-born healthy baby have to look abroad to poor mothers who can't afford to keep their babies and willingly risk the charges of illegally or unethically paying for the baby they want. And they call gays perverse!!

Spurwing Plover said...

TEACHER,TEACHER I DECLARE,I SEE A LIBERALS UNDERWEAR,MIGHT BE BLACK,MIGHT BE WHITE MIGHT BE FULL OF DYNAMITE