Another teacher has been fired for activities outside of school. Leonora Rustamova, 39, (known as Ms. Rusty) taught English at Calder High School in England and was a successful teacher until she wrote a book that the school found a bit too racy. “Stop! Don’t Read This” is a fictional story about students at the school but includes sex and drug references as well as the name of headmaster Stephen Ball.
Frankly, I am surprised by the use of the real names, which raise legal questions of false light and other claims. If she used the names of real students in the internet publication, I find that troubling. However, the named students do not appear to be objecting and it does not appear that that is the reason for the termination — at least according to her supporters. There are protests over not just her termination but another teacher at the school, here.
Rustamova, however, insists that this was merely an effort to get the kids to read and the students and parents have protested her termination.
She is now considering an appeal.
My concern is that this is part of a broader trend toward punishing students and teachers for actions outside of school. Indeed, one of my criticisms of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is her role in one of the most controversial such cases.
Mespo72Cubed,
FYI, I am not posting under any other names. I did find this amusing though. I had been stuck in awful traffic.
mespo727272:
my wife and I hate confrontation, and she’s a pretty good radio player too.
“praise we may afford/ To any lady that subdues a lord”
More is the pity. I go knowing the sting of unrequited love but also knowing it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Brigitte:
“Why don’t you come and see me sometime, when I got nothin’ on but the radio.”
******************
I always prefer more subtle solicitations. Why not try Val-pak! And girls don’t fight; my wife and I hate confrontation, and she’s a pretty good radio player too.
Patty C:
that cute little Ceasar is mine, do you hear me all mine. You keep your grubby paws off him. You may have known him longer but he likes me best.
mespo727272:
I’d relish that sort or review to any of my writings.
Your writings inspire me. The phraseology, the sintax, the sentence construction, and ooh the grammer (I’ll leave it to your imagination as to what that does for me).
Why don’t you come and see me sometime, when I got nothin’ on but the radio.
I think everything out to be published. I have found that if something is offensive to me I better look inside for the root cause. If it is offending my sensibilities it is either because I have a deep affection for the subject or I find it offensive other than that.
Reading is kinda of like rain: either you like it or you don’t, but the bottom line is we need it for things to grow.
From The Guardian article:
“Rustamova’s supporters insist she only wrote the book to encourage pupils to read.
One of the pupils featured, Travis Downs, said: “A lot of books we are asked to read just don’t seem relevant. So when our teacher asked us what would make us more likely to read a novel, we said one that has us in it. We asked her to write the book and helped make it as realistic as possible.”
In the book, Downs is described entering the classroom “like a stranger enters a saloon, like he’s expecting loaded guns under the tables … When he comes in chin down, looking at you from under his eyebrows you can expect a list of swearwords like he’s got them belted into an AK47.”
But the 17-year-old, who left school last summer and is now at college in Bradford, says he found the book inspiring.
“When she’d published the book [on self-publishing website Lulu] she came down the park and gave us our copies as leaving presents,” says Downs. “She’s an amazing teacher ‑ she gets students so motivated, she sees you as a person, not just a student.”
I’d relish that sort or review to any of my writings.