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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMullica kindergarten teacher could be fired after finding students naked in bathroom
MULLICA TOWNSHIP Residents and teachers in this rural community are rallying around a veteran teacher who may lose her job after she found two of her kindergarten students naked in her classroom bathroom and promptly reported it to a principal.
Superintendent Brenda Harring-Marro has filed tenure charges against the teacher, Kelly Mascio, of Mullica Township, said Mullica Township Education Association President Barbara Rheault.
Our main concern is that the administration has completely forgone all traditional disciplinary avenues available in handling the incident, said Rheault, who is also a township committeewoman. The administration has selected a disciplinary route that has resulted in enormous emotional and professional turmoil, and has strained the confidence and trust of school staff, parents and community members.
Mascio, who has been teaching for more than 15 years and has children in Mullica Township schools, has been suspended with pay since a Sept. 30 incident in her classroom. According to a police report, two 5-year-olds a boy and girl went into the in-classroom bathroom together. Mascio found them naked in the restroom, and they told her they were having sex, according to the report.
full: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/mullica-kindergarten-teacher-could-be-fired-after-finding-students-naked/article_b490fb50-9b8e-11e3-9687-0019bb2963f4.html
LisaL
(44,980 posts)Sounds like she did what she was supposed to do by reporting it.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)let alone fired?
The police investigated and found no reason for charges. I wonder if family social services did an investigation? How do 5 year olds know about 'having sex'?
I remember 'playing doctor' at about age 5 with the neighbor girl. I think it's natural to have that sort of curiosity, but simulating sex?
alp227
(32,073 posts)and this story is a reason why teachers' unions are important. I'm sure people in her community regardless of their political views are standing with this teacher. If she taught in one of those "right to work (for less)" states she'd have been shown the door immediately and be collecting unemployment by now.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)but our teachers' unions are pretty strong. I don't think a situation like this would get a teacher fired.
alp227
(32,073 posts)How long has the state been RTW? Has Mark Dayton the courage to propose ending it?
How could a state whose Democratic Party actually has "labor" in its name let itself become right to work?
Bigmack
(8,020 posts)... required to report incidents?
I sure as hell was... and did, too!
If she had not reported it, she'd be liable.
This country is SO fucked up!
longship
(40,416 posts)It's the law! Tenure or not. If you don't report, you lose your job, and your career.
lumpy
(13,704 posts)Boudica the Lyoness
(2,899 posts)my youngest son was 9. Oral sex was mentioned often on the TV during this time and eventually my son asked me what oral sex was. He was too young for the truth, so I told him that oral sex was when people talked about sex.
The next day he told me he and some of his friends were having some oral sex in the boys bathroom, lol. They were talking about sex....I forget how I dealt with it....anyway he still remembers it and we have a laugh about it every now and again.
Jenoch
(7,720 posts)when I was almost 8. I don't remember asking any questions though. I think I just assumed when a female became a certain age, they had a baby. It was not until there seemed to be a certain amount of shame that I could sense that I might be wrong (this happened in 1970 which seems like an eon ago).
Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)alp227
(32,073 posts)and school boards can become as assholish as corporate HR managers and fire any teacher they dislike. If you've ever read right wing sites like The Blaze it's like every day they have a story in big bold letters, "TEACHER CRITICIZES RELIGION"..."TEACHER DARES TO DISS CAPITALISM"...lucily those teachers are union-protected so they can't get fired...but imagine, school boards in right wing parts of the country will exploit this Vergara lawsuit to go on McCarthy like witchhunts
JI7
(89,283 posts)whoever decided to fire the teacher should be fired .