FL: Special ed teacher faces termination today

Four other educators face suspension at a school board meeting.
By Topher Sanders
Story updated at 9:28 AM on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009
http://www.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-02-03/story/special_ed_teacher_faces_termination_today

Duval County Public Schools wants to fire a special education elementary teacher who it says pinned a student against a wall while twisting his arm around his back and, later, locked him in a closet.

Deborah Bailey, a special education teacher at Chaffee Trail Elementary School, faces termination today when the School Board votes on the district's recommendation.

According to the district, on Nov. 18 Bailey pushed one of her special education students into a corner and trapped the student with a chair.

"You also held him on the floor while he screamed and cried for help and you twisted his arm," Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals wrote to Bailey in a Jan. 16 letter. "You subsequently locked the same student in a closet." It is unknown how long the student was in the closet.

Attempts to contact Bailey were unsuccessful.

The district is also recommending that four other Duval educators be suspended without pay for misconduct.

Patricia Noel, a sixth-grade teacher at Arlington Middle School, faces a 10-day suspension for "pulling a chair from beneath a student who was lying down watching a movie during class" on Oct. 30, according to district documents.

Noel also slapped a female student on the arm and directed the student to leave her classroom on Nov. 14 after the student refused to turn in a test, the district said.

Jacqueline Williams, a language arts teacher at Lake Shore Middle School, faces a five-day suspension for calling the office of Grand Park Alternative School and pretending to be the "mother of a student and giving permission for the student to ride the city bus home," according to the district.

Natalie Jackson, a paraprofessional at Terry Parker High School, faces a five-day suspension for throwing a phone book at a student.

Robert Harrison, a math teacher at Twin Lakes Academy Middle School, faces a five-day suspension for scratching the neck of a student he grabbed and bruising the hand of another student he grabbed by the arm, according to the district.

topher.sanders@jacksonville.com (904) 359-4169