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| May 05, 2024 |
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General News: Board Questioned on Teacher Firing
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| Daniella Jones' harassment case goes to trial May 20. |
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| Matthew Epstein spoke on behalf of a group of students. |
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| Rafael Ortiz asked the board to re-consider the case. |
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| Bernie Sussman urged the board to listen to the students. |
February 26, 2008
The termination of high school science teacher Daniella Jones surfaced at the Monday meeting of the Cornwall School Board as three people in the audience pressed the board and school district to re-examine the incident.
First to speak was high school student Matthew Epstein, who said he spoke on behalf of other students. Wearing a t-shirt that read “Bring Back Mama Jones” Epstein stood before the board and said that students didn’t think that eyewitnesses to the face-off between Jones and an allegedly impudent student were taken into account by school officials when they fired her last month.
Epstein noted that the students in Jones’ biology class, where she had taught since last October, suffered academically after she was taken out of the classroom.
Superintendent Rehm seemed to address this issue later, saying that the district was hiring a part-time teacher to provide a supplemental class in biology for those who need to “catch up.”
Former school board candidate Rafael Ortiz also stood to read a statement on the termination of Jones, who he says is “still distressed that she hasn’t had a chance to be fully heard.” Ortiz spoke about how Jones’s treatment, including her prosecution on a harassment charge, puts a blemish on what had been a promising teaching career. “What we have done is tantamount to a public lynching,” Ortiz charged.
School board members remained mute throughout the questioning by Ortiz, Bernie Sussman, and Cornwall Local editor Margaret Menge, who lashed into the board for not answering questions about the firing.
Former school board member Sue Lennon defended the board’s silence, explaining that privacy laws were put in place to protect students. “A discipline problem,” she said, “is not supposed to be fodder for the newspaper. We hire professionals to deal with it.”
In his closing remarks, board member Greg Whalen said he sympathesized with the public’s frustration about the board’s silence but said that the meeting’s structure does not allow back and forth discussion, only statements. The only public statement by the board on the subject has been a letter to the editor, which you can read by clicking here.
Departing school board member Richard Romano encouraged any one who is dissatisfied with the board’s performance to run for a seat. Speaking frankly, he complained about people taking pot shots at the board. “I’m tired of people putting this board down, of putting these people down,” he said at the end of a two-and-a-half hour meeting.
Comments:
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The Board should do the right thing and reinstate Ms. Jones. The Boards solution of hiring a part-time teacher to provide a supplemental class in biology for those who need to ?catch up.? is not satisfactory. You had a good teacher, put the students interest up front give them back Ms. Jones so that they can get the education they deserve. And as for Richard Romano's comment about putting the board down - we want the board to do their job the right way that's what they were elected to do!
posted by booboo84 on 02/27/08 at 3:01 PM
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