From the Mobile Press-Register:

The Monroe County school board has agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed she did not get a teaching job because her children attended private school.

…

Montgomery lawyer Winn Faulk, who represented [Dianne] Bond, said his client lives in Monroeville and serves as a tenured teacher in another school district that he declined to name.

“She is an extremely well-thought-of teacher,” he said.

Faulk declined to discuss the settlement since the matter has not yet been formalized. The judge gave the lawyers 30 days to do so.

Bond sued the Monroe County school board and several principals and other officials in 2004, claiming that they blackballed her because she sent her two young children to Monroe Academy. She stated in a deposition that Monroeville Elementary Principal Melanie Ryals asked her point-blank in June 2000 where the children attended school.

Bond told her that they went to the private school and asked if that was a problem, according to her account.

Bond testified at her deposition that Ryals responded that “it was a factor” because it would cause “a parent problem” among those who resented public school teachers enrolling their own children in private schools.

According to court records, Bond applied for 21 vacant teaching positions from June 2000 to 2004 but did not receive any job offers.

It should be noted that “nationwide, public school teachers are almost twice as likely as other parents to choose private schools for their own children.”

What does that tell you about the state of our government schools?

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This entry was posted by Brian on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Education, News & Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.