Tue Sep 30, 2014, 11:12 AM

QED (1,858 posts)

Teacher fired protecting student from bullying - why due process is important.

Fountain Hills school board fires longtime elementary teacher, Pam Aister

A Fountain Hills elementary school teacher said she took a stand to protect a student and it ended up getting her fired.

Pam Aister said one of her fourth-grade students was being bullied with racist taunts last school year.

"He was called the n-word, monkey, and coon," Aister said of the unidentified student before a school board meeting Friday.

The incident happened in May. She said a group of students were surrounding the boy. She was afraid they were picking on him so she intervened.

Video and more:

http://www.abc15.com/news/region-northeast-valley/fountain-hills/fountain-hills-school-board-fires-longtime-elementary-teacher-pam-aister

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9 replies	Author	Time	Post
Teacher fired protecting student from bullying - why due process is important. (Original post)	QED	Sep 2014	OP
Kids lie.	femmocrat	Sep 2014	#1
This is what wealthy connected parents can do	QED	Sep 2014	#2
So they can't prove what the teacher said happened but they just take the word of the kids and fire	cui bono	Sep 2014	#3
ABSOLUTELY ridiculous!	elleng	Sep 2014	#5
Especially since one of them is the teacher! n/t	cui bono	Sep 2014	#7
Right, as if she were not a reliable 'source.'	elleng	Sep 2014	#8
24 years is one year short of pension eligibility in a lot of places.	Smarmie Doofus	Sep 2014	#4
I always wondered why teachers asserted they didn't hear the bullying	Trillo	Sep 2014	#6
A good example of why teachers need tenure, collective bargaining, and due process....	Sancho	Sep 2014	#9

Response to QED (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2014, 11:23 AM

femmocrat (28,196 posts)

1. Kids lie.

That is a shame that she was dismissed on the basis of a bunch of kids' recounts of the incident. Hope she has a legal case and gets her job back with full-pay.

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Response to femmocrat (Reply #1)

Tue Sep 30, 2014, 11:32 AM

QED (1,858 posts)

2. This is what wealthy connected parents can do

and why those big bad teacher unions are so important.

I wonder if she belonged to the teacher union? If this incident happened at the end of last school year and she's dismissed now, I kind of doubt it would have had time to go through a due process with the union.

It's so sad.

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Response to QED (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2014, 12:39 PM

cui bono (19,926 posts)

3. So they can't prove what the teacher said happened but they just take the word of the kids and fire

her???

Clearly they were out to get her for whatever reasons. Perhaps the board and most certainly the bullies parents enjoy racism. Where else would those kids have learned that that is appropriate behavior?

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Response to cui bono (Reply #3)

Tue Sep 30, 2014, 12:54 PM

elleng (104,595 posts)

5. ABSOLUTELY ridiculous!

Out to get her or not, the fact that they 'believe' some and not the other, in this 'he said/she said' situation, is another example of insanity in our education situation.

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Response to elleng (Reply #5)

Tue Sep 30, 2014, 06:09 PM

cui bono (19,926 posts)

7. Especially since one of them is the teacher! n/t

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Response to cui bono (Reply #7)

Tue Sep 30, 2014, 06:19 PM

elleng (104,595 posts)

8. Right, as if she were not a reliable 'source.'

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Response to QED (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2014, 12:41 PM

Smarmie Doofus (14,498 posts)

4. 24 years is one year short of pension eligibility in a lot of places.

Hmmmm.

Board fired her on the advice of its ( the board's) lawyer.

Hmm.

No mention of a union or due process being involved.

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

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Response to QED (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2014, 04:27 PM

Trillo (9,154 posts)

6. I always wondered why teachers asserted they didn't hear the bullying

back in the 60s and 70s.

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Response to QED (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2014, 07:52 PM

Sancho (8,318 posts)

9. A good example of why teachers need tenure, collective bargaining, and due process....

it's a myth that teachers cannot be fired. On the contrary, they are more often fired for politics and parental interference than real problems of bad teaching.

I'll bet this was a good teacher.

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