This is not a great way for a failing school to go about fixing things (free sub required):
Former Brentwood Middle School teacher John Smith was told that being white and male at the mostly black school could count as two strikes against him, the Charleston County School District admitted in its response to his federal lawsuit Tuesday. Smith sued the district, Principal Wanda Marshall and Associate Superintendent Darrell Johnson last month after his dismissal from the North Charleston school, alleging racial discrimination.
In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston, the district denied Smith's other allegations and asked for a dismissal. It admitted that Marshall told him before he was hired that "in the eyes of the students, he could have two strikes against him, because he was a white male."
In a letter dated April 13, Marshall told Smith he was not invited back to the school for the upcoming school year, though he had "successfully completed" his first year of teaching. She said he could apply to another school in the district. Johnson wrote in a subsequent letter to Smith that the teacher's year was not successful, so he must seek employment with another school district.
Not a good mess to get into. Principal Marshall, who made the comment, is being transferred out of the middle school after it received an "unsatisfactory" state report card grade for the third year in row. Problem is, she'll now be assistant principal of a local high school. Brentwood's administrators claim that Brentwood's problems were not Ms. Marshall's fault, thus distracting us from realizing that, if anyone had the power to do something to change it, she did. They also insist that the school, in which almost 70% of student scored below grade level on the math and English portions of the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test, doesn't really have that much of a discipline problem.
Posted by kswygert at July 30, 2004 03:43 PM