Update on Idaho Teacher Who Allegedly Let Kids Draw on Slow Readers' Faces

Yesterday, I blogged a story about an Idaho teacher who apparently/allegedly let kids draw on the faces of slow readers as a form of rebuke (yes, it mangles the imagination to even make sense of that sentence).

Here's the latest update via Idaho's Twin Falls Times-News:

A formal complaint regarding a Declo, [Idaho] teacher's treatment of students who failed reading goals has been filed with an Idaho commission on educators' professional standards and ethics.

The Idaho State Department of Education's Professional Standards Commission examines complaints against certified teachers and has the power to suspend or revoke teaching licenses.

Cassia County School District Superintendent Galen Smyer said Monday his district filed the complaint after fourth-grade teacher Summer Larsen allowed students to scribble with permanent marker on the faces of classmates who failed to meet reading goals.

"I'm really limited on what I can say because it's a personnel issue," Smyer said. "The investigation on this is also ongoing in the district."

Don't expect a resolution any time soon: "It's a long process," explained a Department of Education spokesperson. That's not a bad thing—charges this serious certainly demand a thorough and fair examination—but it also doesn't seem like the determination of basic facts should be particularly difficult to figure out and act on, either. At the very least, you've got to hope that the kids involved—both the ones drawn on and the ones doing the drawing—have received proper follow-up.

Read original Reason story here.

Hopefully Not Related: "How to Fire an Incompetent Teacher," by John Stossel. An illustrated guide to the miasma of New York City's public school bureaucracy.