Hopefully a lesson learned

Well, justice has prevailed and a judge has ordered the Superintendent of the Tangipahoa School District to reinstate one of the Ponchatoula Junior High teachers who was fired from his job for trying to prevent permanent harm from occurring between two students engaged in a physical altercation.

Instead of basing her judgement on the facts of the situation, the superintendent chose to make her decision guided by what would be the most palpable to a sector of our community, and consequently ended up wasting tax payers’ money, and causing damage to the reputation of two of our teachers.

Hopefully this opens the door for reinstatement of the other teacher as well.  That is, if the other individual even wants his job back, after being treated with such disrespect.

What was truly amazing was how the Tangipahoa School Board members disavowed any responsibility for this superintendent’s irrational decision by hiding behind ACT 1 that our Legislature passed during the Jindal era.  This Act gives Louisiana school superintendents full authority for the hiring and firings of all certified employees without Board approval.  The Board disavowed any responsibility in this matter.

While basically true regarding their responsibility in these firings, ACT 1 doesn’t forbid the school board members from jointly sending a formal letter to their employee, the superintendent, to voice their discontent with such a decision.  The superintendent works for them, they hired the individual, and I would hope that they realize that they can formally reprimand this individual if they so desire.

Since I am not aware of any such correspondence, I can only assume that they were on board with this entire fiasco and do bear responsibility by their complacency.   Perhaps off the record disapproval phone calls were placed, but that is not the same as a written, formal complaint.

Sadly, for both teachers their journey is not over because the parents of these students have not realistically conceptualized what could have happened to their children if these teachers had not intervened.  Instead they have listened to the advice of an attorney.   Perhaps they should have a conversation with the parents of a fifth grade student in a South Carolina school who in March was involved in a physical altercation at school and ended up dying from internal injuries.

These teachers should have been commended for de-escalating actions that could have resulted in harm to one or both students.  Instead they were treated like criminals thanks to those in charge of the Tangipahoa School System.

Hopefully everyone has learned something from this situation.  Namely, that interracial interaction can occur without race tainted bias when de-escalation of a dangerous situation takes place.