Penalty Leads to Rockslide of Protest

[Sequoia]

A lone girl lugging a bucket of rocks into the woods.

That is what teacher Christa Price remembers about that day last September.

She thought the punishment was extreme, even dangerous, for a fourth-grader who had refused to do her schoolwork. What she did next cost Price her job and caused seven other teachers in the tiny East Lynne School District to quit in protest. Only two classroom teachers are staying.

Dan Doerhoff, school superintendent and principal, says he is through with rock punishment, but he stands by his decision to fire Price for insubordination.

Also See:
Same Principal Disciplined Boy for Viewing Anti-Bush, White House Parody Website





Christa Price lost her job as a second-grade teacher after she protested Principal Dan Doerhoff's decision to discipline a fourth-grader by making the girl pick up rocks in front of East Lynne School. (KST Photo/Allison Long)

Two years earlier, the girl had been Price's second-grade pupil at East Lynne School in Cass County. Just after the school year ended, a truck struck the girl while she was riding her bike. Price visited her at Children's Mercy Hospital.

So when Price saw the girl picking up rocks, unsupervised, near the blacktop highway in front of the school, she went to Doerhoff's office. Price told Doerhoff that she was concerned for the girl's safety and that the punishment made the school look bad.

Doerhoff dismissed Price's complaint.

On her free period, Price went out and picked up rocks with the girl. The next day, other teachers went out, too. Some graded papers while the girl worked.

When contract time came, Doerhoff recommended that Price be fired for failing to support the administration.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0526-06.htm

Also See:
Same Principal Disciplined Boy for Viewing Anti-Bush, White House Parody Website