Scott R. Sullivan

March 30th, 2007 by Scott

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,262685,00.html

A jury has found that a Louisiana School (including the principal, school board and superintendent) had harassed and violated First Amendment rights, plus retailiated against high school teacher Paula Payne.

According to Fox News, the “jurors awarded her $1.2 million for mental anguish and $200,000 in punitive damages.”

I am in complete disagreement regarding the amount handed out to the teacher. I just don’t see $1.2 million dollars worth of “anguish.” I’m also afraid this will be on what everyone will focus.

However, the verdict in favor of the teacher is the important aspect of the story. This teacher had high standards in and English II class, raising the bar. As a result, she was giving out a larger percentage of D’s and F’s to students. According to the Fox News story, the students even called her class the “House of Payne.”

What baffle’s me is the attitude of many school officials and administrators. In this specific case, they alleged to have harrased Payne in an attempt to have her raise the students’ grades. Payne allegedly refused to do so, and kept her dignity.

This is a recurring theme I’m seeing among the left leaning education system.

The bar is being lowered. Instead of pushing students to strive to better themselves, instead of pushing students to try harder, the converse is true.

We are telling students that all they don’t have to get A’s.

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. It is occurring more frequently and in multiple arenas.

Why must we lower the bar? Why can’t we raise standards in our education system and push our students to be better?