Posted on 03/30/2007 6:58:25 AM PDT by Ellesu
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The West Feliciana Parish school system must pay more than $1.4 million to an English teacher who was suspended and demoted after refusing to change the Ds and Fs she gave to 70 percent of her students, a federal jury has found.
The jury of four men and five women deliberated almost four hours before finding that the school board, superintendent and the principal at West Feliciana High School had harassed Paula Payne, violated her First Amendment rights and retaliated against her.
"This is civics in action," Superintendent Lloyd Lindsey said. "The jury has spoken."
He also said he would talk with the school board about a possible appeal.
Payne said, "I'm just so thankful the truth is known."
Jurors awarded her $1.2 million for mental anguish and $200,000 in punitive damages.
The lawsuit filed two years ago said the 16-year teacher was suspended and demoted because she refused to change the and told her story to a television station.
School system administrators said they never asked her to change any grades. Lindsey said she was suspended for five days in November 2004 because she refused to meet with administrators unless a Louisiana Education Association representative was there.
Until she resigned in 2005, Payne taught English at the school in St. Francisville, where students called her class the "House of Payne" because of her high expectations.
In the first six weeks of the fall 2004 semester, court documents show, she gave 70 percent of the school's 180 sophomores a 'D' or an 'F' in English II. The low scores conflicted with those same students' grades in other subjects as well as English grades for freshmen, juniors and seniors.
Payne's lawsuit said principal Michael Thornhill told her that if she would not change the grades, she would be assigned to teach in the behavior modification clinic for troubled students. Louisiana law bars any principal, superintendent or school board member from influencing or altering a student's grade.
In January 2005, the West Feliciana School Board suspended her for 45 days for willful neglect of duty. When she returned to the high school, she was assigned to be a library monitor and given tutoring classes with no students. She taught only two English classes.
Payne now teaches English to inmates at Dixon Correctional Center.
Asked whether she would consider returning to teach in Louisiana public schools, Payne said she would not. She said former colleagues at West Feliciana High School and in a teachers' sorority have told her they had similar experiences.
"I wanted to do something so they know they have rights. They ought to be able to do their jobs without harassment," she said. "Now they know it's OK to stand up for what's right."
We need more teachers like this.
but what about the students FEEEEEELLLIIINNNGGGSSS???
I have mixed feelings about this. It may be that the standards of the school were way out of line with the actual performance of the students, but it seems more likely that the teacher's expectations were unreasonable. If that is the case, the system had a responsibility to the students to intervene.
if I am reading this correctly, good.....the warehousing of children just so the teachers unions can grow fat and vote democrat is the despicable political practice that is ruining our education system.....
If more teachers had high expectations, kids would actually like it. Kids like a challenge, they like to be respected, they like to be taken seriously. Of course, if only one teacher has high expectations then she would be widely seen as "harsh" or "unfair" but that doesn't necessarily make it so.
But too many parents don't want their darling children to be hurt by low marks, and adminsitrators are in the business of having "an educational crisis" so they can ask for more money. Actually having kids succeed gets in the way of that.
My kind of decison, hit the leftist where it hurts the most, right in their god money.
Love it.
;-)
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It's always nice to see a jury do what's right!
BUMP!
It's unclear from the article if the students really deserved the bad grades? Or if the teacher did this just to prove a point? "I wanted to do something so they know they have rights"
God bless her. I hate law suits, but this one is on the right side and ultimately could benefit the students.
As a former teacher, I have been in situations similar to this teacher's. I wish that I could be as optimistic, though, as she is about the future for her former colleagues who actually have academic standards.
Oh, I never explained my latest unfounded paranoia?
At least she'll be safer there.
Sounds like my high school English teacher. So, that's why I had 11 years of English in high school.
I am reminded of the movie "Arthur." Arthur is waiting at his father's office to meet with him and he remarks to his butler Hobson, "I hate it here; no one ever smiles." Hobson replies, "Of course you hate it here; people WORK here, Arthur. They smile at lunchtime."
And probably more respect.
Especially since it's not your money, a-hole. Make a mess and let someone else bear the consequences. A typical educrate.
...seems more likely that the teacher's expectations were unreasonable....
**
I doubt that was the problem. I suspect that teachers who taught the same students in the years before this teacher got them just did not want the fights from administrators and the pressure from parents and, therefore, just accepted substandard work. It is very sad, but I know from experience that this happens.
So what are you saying? Are the students unable to read and write? Not smart enough? I know they weren't smart enough to bus out all of the people in N.O. before the hurricane, hence Ray "School Bus" Nagin!,
Talk about a fate worse than death....
The school board got off cheap. Now if they could only take it out of their worthless hides instead of the taxpayers.
L
The soft tyranny of low expectations.
If more teachers had high expectations, kids would actually like it. Kids like a challenge, they like to be respected, they like to be taken seriously. Of course, if only one teacher has high expectations then she would be widely seen as "harsh" or "unfair" but that doesn't necessarily make it so.
But too many parents don't want their darling children to be hurt by low marks, and adminsitrators are in the business of having "an educational crisis" so they can ask for more money. Actually having kids succeed gets in the way of that.
**
Amen to all that you said. Been there, done that.
Probably giving a number of her former students a second chance.
(OK, the lawyer gets a third. I know)
Now this one is a bright bulb. Or he knows the money will come from federal funds anyhow.
Thankfully, in retrospect, i have brutally hard teeachers. I always managed to get the toughest every year, like the 4'7 woman we called General Bradley. They were damn tough, but they were fair. I don't see where this woman was fair, and it appears she was not in line with the community standard, which I'd bet sucked.
I'm no fan of grade inflation, but expecting the kids to meet her standards without having the educational foundation to do so isn't right or fair.
Given that our public school system prodces the highest number of illiterate students in the history of public education, I'm inclined to disagree with your analysis.
Why do you imagine the teacher's unions are so ardently opposed to any sort of performance-based pay structure? Because the performance is based upon standardized testing of the students, and because many students are so poorly-taught that they fail this sort of testing... which is also why more and more teachers are aligning themselves against ANY sort of standardized testing, for teachers and students, period.
So how else can you raise the community standard? Throwing more money at it isn't the solution, it takes teachers who have the guts to say "enough is enough."
While once in a while there are teachers with unrealistic expectations. But there is no evidence this is the case here. On time I received an assignment in the seventh grade for which the class had received no background preparation and which my mother, a college graduate, was unable to help me complete.
mi englesh Teecher had veery lax; standards and gave out the grades we more or less wantedand I think i turneded' out pretty good (or is that pretty well),
*****Snicker*****
I think you know me well enough to know my general position on lawsuits, but I believe she made the right move in suing in this case. Hopefully the administrators of this district will get the hint (but I won't hold my breath)
The teacher's expectations were DEFINITELY unreasonable!! She expected them to be well educated. It's obvious. That's out of line.
I have high expectations in my class for my students. I too, teach English.
I have approximately 50-70 percent failures. I teach the hard learning kind, kids who will go straight to work after High School. But you know what? My kids LEARN SOMETHING and they pass HIGH STAKES TESTS for their diploma.
I do not blame the teacher for asking for representation. She has that right.
Someone tell me why it is wrong to expect someone to do something for you? Would you pay an employee who does not perform to a standard you have set, or does not work a full week for a full week's pay? If you would, I want to work for you.:)
Bull.
It seems more likely that other teachers were letting their students coast so they wouldn't have to put up with parents angry that their children were getting D's and F's.
A friend of mine is a history teacher. Just last month he gave a multiple choice quiz to a class of Juniors on the Civil War. The test had 25 questions and 2 bonus questions. He said 1 student got all 27 correct, 4 students got at least 20 correct, 13 students got between 15 and 19 correct and 8 students got less than 15 correct. One student got 3 (3!!) correct. He said he gave 5 A's, 13 B's, and 8 C's.
I yelled at him for that. 20 out of 25 is 80%, a C when I was in school, but he gave an A for it.
His response was that the school has made it very clear that unless a student did not even try, he could not fail them.
And he is a good teacher! He cares! But the school sets these rules to please parents rather than to educate children.
Nise to sea a fello graduat of the Evelyn Woodhead Sped Reeding Korse.
Then the teacher is God, with no recourse for wronged students? Bad law.
I agree completely, but an educatinal foundation is needed. the kids probably never had a tough teacher who demanded alot from them, and weren't taught preparatory materials. It sounds as though they were basically fed to the wolves, The equivalent of making them take engineering calculus 3 a a time whem they are learning basic trig.
This is all supposition, though. We really can't glean enough from the article, but the jury did side with her. Bigtime.
Given today's youth and their inability to communicate in English, given the grade creep (most everybody gets As and Bs), given the relaxation in teaching standards, I would say the teacher may be onto something.
Sounds more like to me that this teacher can't effectively teach her subject or that her teaching and testing methods aren't in sync.
If say 20% had a D or F, ok she is probably tough but fair. A 70% D or F rate to me says this teacher reads from the teacher's manual, doesn't know how to explain her subject and simply goes through the motions.
I can remember quite clearly many years back in HS where for the first half of the year, there was whatever they call it when a new teacher is on probation and under the supervision of a senior teacher teaching the class. Try as I might, I never did better than a D and I think it went just to how poorly this guy did at explaining things. The second half of the year, when the senior teacher (old woman, mean as hell) took over, my grade went up to an A - the class was harder but at least she was able to effectively communicate the subject to the students so they understood. She could actually answer questions and explain the answers unlike the newboy who probably did his best but wasn't familiar enough with his subject.
Believe the course was 12th grade US History or else some type of similar course.
Assinine, on both counts.
Not just jobs but high paying positions of authority.
I worked for a company that had the hospital workers union in place( even though I worked in Pharmaceuticals).
during a strike the company offered us the medical plan that the non union workers had, which was head and shoulders over the unions plan. and they would also meet the unions salary demands...everyone at work agreed..but the union, who got big kickbacks off the plan struck it down without a vote by the rank and file...
....I DESPISE, unions.
1.4 million? Got a feeling their are going to be a lot of F's in Baton Rogue for that kind of cash. "House of Payne" LOL
Good for this teacher. Let's teach children how to think. Public schools should do more than create manageable adults.
It's easy for him to be sanguine about the whole thing - it's the taxpayer that gets to pay for his malfeasance and any Democrat will tell you that there's plenty more money where that came from.
Ditto jobs in government.
Shows what the public school system has become. The more who defy it the better.
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