A Florida teacher , 59, who was recently arrested for pointing a loaded.38 handgun at another driver during a road rage incident, wants her job back as a teacher, according to Orlando Sentinel .
For the past 13 years, Ellen Paladino has taught computer science and math at Crooms Academy of Information Technology in Sanford, Florida, but was recently fired following her arrest in 2014 that caused her to miss several days of work.
Seminole teacher, jailed in #LakeCo for pulling gun in road rage incident, wants job back http://t.co/pTDVt4wbsw pic.twitter.com/MB4ZKaMt7Z
— Lake Sentinel (@OSLakeCounty) June 12, 2015
Paladino was not only arrested, but last month she was convicted of pointing a gun at another driver during a road rage incident.
Apparently, the Seminole County teacher “was changing lanes a lot without her turn signals, cursing and throwing her hands up” while driving her red Ford F-150 n US Highway 441. When she finally stopped at a traffic light, a vehicle pulled up next to her and began to laugh.
She became irate and said, “Take it easy” just before pulling out her handgun from the center console.
It was reported that as the teacher pointed her gun at the driver, she used profanity and ordered him to get out of her sight. The driver then sped off and immediately contacted Seminole police.
However, her husband, Robert Paladino believes otherwise. He claims the other driver was the wild driver, not his wife. And he doesn’t believe that she pointed a gun at the driver.
“Never. And I believe her, and all her friend’s believe her. She is not a liar,” he said.
“I haven’t slept through the nights. I wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning. I throw up, I have a worried stomach. I throw up every morning.”
The teacher was found guilty last month, and she is now serving a six month sentence at the Lake County Jail.
Since Paladino becoming a teacher at the school in 2002, she has never had any issues. When her students found out about their teachers’ road rage incident, they began posting positive comments on her Rate My Teacher profile.
One of her students wrote the following.
“If there is ever a zombie apocalypse she is on my team!”
“She is a loving person. She gives her time to her student,” Paladino’s husband added.
Despite her conviction, Paladino’s attorney has stated that his client did nothing to violate the school’s policy, and he believes that she should be able to return to work.
An “appeal to protest the superintendent’s recommendation to fire her” was filed last month, but there has been no word on a possible hearing date.
[Image courtesy of Scott Olsen/Getty Images ]
