Kansas Teacher Fired Over Florida Joke

If my daughter would have been in that class I would have run up there and demanded he was fired. Teachers make mistakes just like the rest of us, and most are totally forgivable. A little too harsh with the “Don’t talk in class” scolding… fine, kids that age can be really annoying. Sexual innuendo with pre-teens… you lose your job.

The district overreacted. My kids went to that school and one of my kids, a daughter, had Mr. Haraughty as a science teacher. And it is not all boys who are protesting. And parents are protesting too, a lot of them. More than 300 people showed up at the board meeting to protest his firing. He is a great teacher, one who inspires kids and makes them want to learn, which is more than can be said for a lot of teachers these days. It looks like you’ve already decided that he was in the wrong, but what this is all about is the principal does not like him and has been looking for a reason to fire him. Unfortunately, the principal is more interested in her status than the kids. I don’t think the district expected the backlash they have received from firing this teacher. We want the teacher back and the principal and school board fired. In fact, there is a petition being signed to that effect.

I think that by itself, the comment wouldn’t have been enough to get this teacher fired. It was unprofessional and showed a lapse in judgment to be sure, but everyone makes mistakes and it is really hard to “turn off” your own sense of humor in front of a classroom. I would know this, as I am a teacher myself. Everyone slips and says something stupid at least once or twice in their careers. However, I think that the school is most likely telling the truth about how this is just the latest in a long line of inappropriate instances from this guy. Teachers can’t get fired at the drop of a hat (unless they do something seriously bad of course). The school has most likely spent a long time recording incidents and getting the proper paperwork filed to get him out. I think parents might be surprised to know how many bad teachers keep their jobs because it is too difficult and time consuming for school administrators to fire them.

Um, are we not sexual beings? What the hell is wrong referring to a perfectly natural bodily function? No wonder our kids are so messed up about sex; we’ve got to absolutely ban any reference to it or our poor litt’luns will be DAMAGED! Grow up, everyone. Your 13 year old has thought or done much more than you’ve imagined with their sexual parts. It’s not like the guy was talking about a particular student’s penis, or directing the comment to a girl-student being exciting.

Your post is a bit inflammatory. Mr. Haraughty drew an outline of the United States. Florida was out of proportion. Some kids started to snicker (of course they did…this is 8th grade, after all) and Mr. Haraughty responded that Florida was just excited. He was trying to downplay the class response and in doing so, said something he obviously regrets. But to lose his job over it is unjustifiable. He’s a talented, passionate, beloved teacher who has a gift for connecting with students and getting them to not only understand, but enjoy, science. Part of this gift is being able to relate to them. Yes, it may have pulled him across a very gray line, and that’s regrettable. But only because there are people out there who are unwilling to use something benign like this as an opportunity to teach kids about crossing lines, the power of apology, and working together to solve something so the outcome benefits everyone involved. In this case, anything but that has happened.

I teach 8th graders. They are not preteens but teenagers. They make comments with sexual innuendo all the time… even with their teachers.
Although they tend to believe we won’t understand what they mean.

He was fired because of something else… this isn’t a reasonable reason for termination.

8th Grade Science teachers are frequently in charge of teaching sex education. While this teacher apparently wasn’t formally instructing the students on the arousal of male gonads, students would have been taught about erections in health well before 8th grade. Making sure eight graders understand the science behind an erection is actually a health benchmark in some states –It’s a basic component of health education. These were 8th graders not 3rd graders. I think it was a pretty benign comment.

CommentsThis was part of a campaign (and I am not given to hyperbole) on the part of the principal to rid herself of this teacher. He is a respected teacher in the district among the teachers, students and parents. He was escorted out, in the middle of class, with a policeman and the principal. Over 300 parents showed up at the school board meeting where comments were taken. This is not a man who has a history of subordination, sexual inappropriateness or any other classroom problems. I am not a teacher, student or parent, or relative of Mr Haraughty’s, but a concerned community member.

I would think a warning first, then firing for a second transgression.

Holy Over-reaction batman! Seriously, much too harsh of a punishment. Sure, it may have been inappropriate, but to be fired over one comment like that is even more inappropriate. Sure, give the teacher a warning, tell him not to do it again. Start the paper trail, whatever you have to do to prove that this teacher is making a “sexually hostile environment.” But to jump from one slipped up comment to losing his job doesn’t make a lick of sense. And seriously, the kids were all probably laughing at the comment thinking their teacher was funny/cool, and not traumatized forever like their parents think their “babies” should be.

Comments
It’s interesting to hear more of the story through the comments. Even the circumstances of the event–the snickering by the students, the fact that it was clear the students were already thinking along sexual lines and the teacher picked up on that–I can see how a teacher would use a little humor to defuse the situation and then move on. Had he stayed on it, initiated it himself, talked repeatedly about this with a single student in a conference, all these things could have shown bad judgment. That he responded in what is really an incredibly mild way probably makes him more accessible to students than had he prudishly ignored or chastised teens whose minds are on sex half the time anyway. Why are we so hung up on acting like sex, and sexual functions, are not a part of life? There are much better lines to be drawn as to what would be clearly inappropriate. When people get their hands slapped for clear sexual imposition or are let go so that the problem can just move somewhere else–now that’s something to get bothered about.