A 9-year-old boy was suspended from his Gaston County school this week after he called his teacher “cute.”

According to Chiquita Lockett, the young child’s mother, she receive a letter from the school in which they accused the young child of sexual harassment.

In the letter school officials say the boy used a suggestive voice to say the teacher was “fine” while the boy says he only said “cute.”

Under district rules such language and the tone in which it was used are both considered a form of sexual harassment.

School officials told WSOC TV that the boy has been in trouble in the past, in addition to his cute comment officials have also had to warn his mother about name calling in which he used bad words to attack children.

According to school officials the comments have been deemed inappropriate and violate the student code of conduct.

The boy continues to profess his innocence, noting:

“I didn’t use bad language about other students.”

Defending her son Lockett said:

“What’s in that letter, what they accuse him about — if that’s true, I should have been notified about it … And if so, then I would have seen where a suspension would have taken place.”

Do you think calling a teacher “cute” is reason for a suspension considering the boys young age?

Boy Calls Teacher “Cute” And Gets Handed A Suspension is a post from: The Inquisitr

A kindergarten teacher in London, England drank so much on her lunch break recently that her schools principal thought she was having a seizure when teaching and called an ambulance to rescue the 51-year-old educator.

According to the principal he though Penny Truman was having a seizure when she couldn’t control herself.

After the incident the teachers council found Truman guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail an official says that Penny Truman’s “actions have the potential to bring the reputation and standing of the profession into serious disrepute.”

The official also said:

 “She was clearly going through a period of personal stress, apparently deteriorating health, she suffered a family bereavement at the time and was exhausted.”

Penny will not be fired assuming she shows a “satisfactory medical report” before returning to her place of employment. The report must show that Truman is in good mental health before returning to work.

At least the students didn’t spike their teachers drink like Bart Simpson and his class did to Mrs. Krabappel during an episode of the Simpsons (pictured above).

Do you think the teacher should have been fired or is psychological evaluation enough to place her back into good standing?

Teacher So Drunk That Principle Thought She Was Having A Seizure is a post from: The Inquisitr

Sarah Perez has a post over on ReadWriteWeb that has been kind of bothering me for most of the day. The way the story goes is this

• woman goes to a party
• woman puts on a pirate hat
• woman has a picture of herself taken drinking while wearing a pirate hat – a toy one at that
• woman posts said picture to her MySpace page with the title Drunken Pirate
• at the same time said woman posts a note alluding to a strained relationship with a supervising teacher
• the University she was attending decides that she shouldn’t get her degree in education
• woman sues
• woman loses
• woman says her First Amendment rights have been violate.

Okay .. got the picture?

Now here’s the problem I am having. Everything I have read so far has been pushing this whole idea that it’s because of some stupid picture on MySpace that ruined her chances at getting her teaching degree. What isn’t being taken into account are the reports of the note regarding her teaching supervisor. I haven’t been able to find out what exactly was said in that note but to discount it as a possible reason – or one of the reasons for her situations is ignoring some possible facts.

As well, of all the articles I read only one made mention of the fact that this woman had already been criticized for her competence and professionalism, not to mention generally bad evaluations. Why couldn’t this have been the reason for her not getting her teaching degree?

It seems to me that in this case social media is being used as a handy scapegoat by both parties in the matter. To say it was just because of some picture is irresponsible. At the very best such a picture might have gotten a reprimand with a lecture on professional conduct – it does not however equal ruining a person’s career.

However having bad evaluations or having your competence questioned is grounds for not getting a degree. To cloud over the whole issue with things like Myspace photos; which was admittedly a stupid thing to do, is ridiculous. It may have provided additional ammunition for the university to not give her an education degree but in of itself I don’t think it was the whole reason.

The fact that this woman then tried to couch it in First Amendment rights though is equally insulting. She did something stupid maybe by posting the picture but it was her actions in the classroom that more than likely saw her with just an English degree instead.

It seems though that once any social media angle surfaces these days it is either the cause or the solution to some problem. Well, as nice as that might be for the press, I greatly doubt that is the case here. Sometimes a duck is just that – a duck. In this case a woman was an incompetent teaching student that didn’t deserve a degree that would let her teach our children.

End of story.

[pic courtesy of The Smoking Gun]

Drunken Pirate or college degree – which do you pick? is a post from: The Inquisitr