North Carolina Teacher Loses Job After Posting Video Of Disabled, Mocking Her On Instagram
A North Carolina school teacher is out of a job, just days into the new school year, after posting a video on Instagram that appeared to mock a disabled child, Yahoo News reports.
The teacher, whose name has not been made public, voluntarily left her job with Mooresville Graded Schools after the Instagram video was shared on Facebook by a parent.
It seems that last week, the teacher was scheduled to go on a field trip. However, one of the children, who is in a wheelchair, ‘created an unsafe bus environment for [the] class’ in some unspecified way, and thus she wasn’t allowed to go on the field trip. The unidentified teacher was made to stay behind so she could supervise the student.
The teacher took a video of the misbehaving student, covering her (the student’s) face with a graphic, and complained that she (the teacher) is missing out on the field trip because of the student.
“This girl has not made a peep since we got into the classroom from the bus. Her unruly behavior was literally just to get out of the field trip and now we both get to sit here and stare at each other for the next three hours while the class is gone. Happy freakin’ Wednesday,” the teacher said.
In a caption, the teacher wrote that the student’s behavior meant that the teacher would miss out on a pizza lunch, too.
In the video posted to social media, the teacher says the student wasn't allowed to go on a field trip because of her behavior.
“We both get to sit here and stare at each other for the next three hours while the class is gone. Happy freaking Wednesday." https://t.co/HERm5BQrIB
— Queen City News (@Queen_City_News) August 30, 2019
“Didn’t pack a lunch today because I thought I’d be eating pizza with the class. Send food, send patience,” she wrote.
It seems as though the teacher may have been early in her teaching career, as well: she also made a “joke” that she expected teaching to be fun
The sequence of events that happened next remains unclear, but it seems as if the video made it to Facebook (it has since been deleted), and then was sent to Charlotte’s WJZY-TV by several viewers. It also caught the attention of the teacher’s superiors at Mooresville Graded Schools, who placed her on suspension.
On Friday morning, she turned in her resignation.
In a statement, a Moorseville Graded Schools spokesperson noted that, because of confidentiality rules, specifics regarding an employee’s discipline and employment can’t be publicly discussed.
“However, it is important for parents and the community to understand that anytime a question arises regarding the conduct of a school employee specific to their job, the superintendent and school administrators work diligently to ensure the best possible outcome for our students,” said Chief Communication Officer Tanae Sump-McLean.
