Trapped in a Corrupt School District: A True Story

Born and mostly educated in Italy, at a young age I immigrated to Quebec, Canada, where I taught Latin to French speaking high school students. Then, I earned a Ph.D. degree in French and Latin at the University of Ontario. My dream came true when in 1967 I entered the USA as French instructor at a college in central Kansas and later at the University of Tennessee. Alas, due to the declining enrollment in the foreign languages at the University, three years later I lost my untenured job. Next, being just a part-time French instructor in a catholic college, I took a full-time teaching job in the public school district of Fairview, a medium-sized town in the Appalachian Plateau. I taught French and Latin to high school freshmen. There I was appreciated by everybody and three years later I was granted tenure.

With the advent of a new school superintendent, Tom Jones, in 1980 the tide suddenly turned. He advocated that the school district did not need a teacher with a Ph.D. degree and, most of all, that as a "European" I was unqualified to teach in his American schools. He decided that I had to go. Unable to find a legitimate reason to get rid of me, he started building a termination case for "gross inefficiency". For that purpose, Jones replaced my honest principal with Frank Grossman, an awkward and loyal bootlicker who had no knowledge of French and Latin. For four years Grossman made my life extremely miserable. He sat in my classroom almost fifty times and, if so to speak I taught that planet Earth is round, he documented that I said it is square. Yet, nothing could justify my dismissal.

In spring 1982, Jones indefinitely laid off 67 untenured teachers for alleged financial problems. I was the only tenured teacher among them. Later, the school board ordered to rehire all 67 teachers, because the lay-off was unjustified. Yet, Jones refused to rehire me. Finally, he made me ransom my tenured job by making me drop a couple of pending grievances.

Exasperated by his repeated failures to get rid of me, Jones announced in the local news that I was "the poorest teacher in the school district" and that he had no choice but to let me go. To achieve his resolve, he had Grossman triple the efforts to fabricate as much negative documentation as possible. Grossman even used a few teachers, students, parents, and substitute teachers to support his efforts. To further mortify and disgrace me, he had me sit in other teachers' classroom to learn how to teach French and Latin in America. He ordered me to take additional college classes to qualify to teach those languages at the first year level. Two school administrators and three outsiders were hired to sit in my classes and prepare negative reports. None of them knew French and Latin. I became a laughing stock in the entire school district. The maltreatment became so callous that my doctor placed me on sick leave for 30 days, because of an "acute anxiety syndrome".

After four years of relentless and undignified torment, in March 1984, Supt. Jones had his rubber stamp school board fire me for alleged "inability" to teach French and Latin even at the first year level. Even my foreign "accent" and my alleged "European way of teaching" were given as termination grounds. Yes, my sick leave was also used to claim that I was "physically unable to teach". Since previously I had been a successful teacher in catholic schools, Jones had the insolence to advise that I should seek employment in catholic schools, as if those were inferior.

This book describes the incredible, despicable, and appalling persecution, mistreatment, and humiliation I endured in that school district run by a corrupt superintendent and his accomplices. It is a shocking case of ignorance, bigotry and malice.

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Notice: Although the events de..