Brooklyn teacher who wrote on FB that students ‘should drown’ returned to classroom
posted at 12:24 pm on February 5, 2012 by Howard Portnoy
A Manhattan Supreme Court has reversed the dismissal of a Brooklyn schoolteacher for posting “repulsive” comments about her students on Facebook, the New York Post reports.
The judge, Barbara Jaffe, determined that the school’s decision to fire Christine Rubino, who taught at PS 203 in the borough’s Flatlands section, was disproportionate to her offense.
On June 23, 2010, Rubino wrote on Facebook:
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 [sic] spawn!
What made the remark especially invidious in the eyes of school administrators is that it came one day after a 12-year-old student, Nicole Suriel, accidentally drowned on a school trip to a Long Island beach.
The judge ruled that in spite of Rubino’s clear and obvious frustration with her students’ unruly behavior, there was no evidence that she intended to inflict actual harm on them or that the comments would impact her ability to teach.
In the administrative hearing that resulted in Rubino’s dismissal last June, presiding officer Randi Lowitt offered her view that Facebook and other social media “are becoming embedded in society.” She added, “People post without regard to the fact that what they post has a shelf life of forever.”
But the judge demurred, writing that “even though [Rubino] should have known that her postings could become public,” she enjoyed the “reasonable” expectation that her comments would be viewed only by her Facebook adult friends. Citing Rubino’s “unblemished” 15-year teaching history, she voided the termination and sent the teacher back to the Department of Education for a “lesser penalty.”
In a superficially similar case last August, a Lake County, Florida, “Teacher of the Year” was suspended after expressing opposition to New York’s gay marriage law on his personal Facebook page. That teacher, Jerry Buell, was reinstated after the American Civil Liberties Union and Liberty Counsel publicly argued that the school’s action violated his First Amendment protections.
In the current case, the Post concludes, the ruling comes as a blow to the city’s beleaguered Ed Department, underscoring, as it does, “the grueling process to fire teachers accused of misconduct or incompetence.” That process is under review following the recent reports of a teacher who is earning $100 thousand as a hanger-on in the city’s now-defunct “rubber room” policy.
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Outbursts of frustration occur in every faculty lounge and nobody takes them seriously.
Facebook is not your friend.
AesopFan on February 5, 2012 at 9:03 PM
It’s gonna be an interesting return to the classroom for that teacher.
squint on February 5, 2012 at 9:34 PM
I don’t know anything about this particular school or district, but if my children had this teacher I would insist they be moved to another class or I would find another school. Whether she “meant it” or not, can you imagine how the kids in her class feel? This is 5th grade, these kids are only 10 and 11.
toby11 on February 5, 2012 at 10:28 PM
When will conservatives wake up and realize the government school system is a fundamentally flawed model? A government monopoly of early education can only lead to top down thinking by the masses. Fundamental assumptions about the nature of government are being spun into the minds of our children by authority figures who are government workers.
Even if there was no bias at all from the teachers favoring a positive view of government power (a ludicrously improbable scenario over the long run), the mere establishment of substitute parental authority in the form of a government worker imposes a pro-government bias.
Anyone who cannot see there is a systemic problem is not thinking at all. When education is not a free market, we should not be surprised when our young do not learn to understand the importance of markets and freedom.
If the Manhatten Supreme Court’s action encourages even just one parent to remove their child from the government indoctrination centers, then it has accomplished something good.
fadetogray on February 6, 2012 at 9:13 AM
Hey, as long as she’s not a swimming teacher, it’s OK.
n0doz on February 6, 2012 at 4:03 PM
It’s Brooklyn… they’re probably all 13 or older.
n0doz on February 6, 2012 at 4:04 PM
Are you kidding? As a teacher, college not secondary schools, I see the drooling morons everyday, they can barely function and could care less about learning. When I get frustrated I take a couple of sick days – after all I am sick of them – and would never, ever put anything on Facebook.
Smedley on February 6, 2012 at 4:27 PM
I’m actually more appalled that the Teacher of the Year was suspended for expressing a mainstream political view on his personal FB page, and I don’t even care one way or the other about same sex marriage.
juliesa on February 7, 2012 at 9:13 AM