Dive Brief:
- Jennifer Mitts, a teacher at Tennessee's Red Bank High School, says school officials forced her to resign after she took an ill, uninsured 20-year-old student to the hospital and paid the bill.
- Mitts says officials "dictated" the contents of her resignation letter to her, including a waiver of her right to a hearing, but officials say she was only going to be temporarily suspended and the resignation was voluntary.
- A petition in support of the teacher has garnered over 500 signatures and claims, "Even though both students may have suffered harm by not going to the doctor, Principal Roberts saw fit to give Miss Mitts the choice of being fired or resigning for her good deeds."
Dive Insight:
The petition also makes note of the fact that Mitts, who taught at the school for 14 years, had been in trouble before for taking a sick student to the doctor — though in that case, she had permission from the student's parents. She had reportedly been warned before about taking students from the school in her car, as it constitutes a liability issue.
Perhaps she would have been better off calling an ambulance in either case, but it might also be an overreaction to force out — if the claims are true — a teacher who cares enough about her students to foot the emergency room expenses when one is sick.
