News

Schools Decide That No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

By Taylor Garre | April 2, 2014

“A Tennessee teacher drives ill student to the hospital and pays for the bill.”

“A third grader shaves her head to show her support for a friend with cancer.”

These heartwarming headlines sound like stories of praised heroic acts, but are, in fact, cases in which their schools have taken disciplinary actions against these seemingly good deeds. While society is moving forward and becoming more accepting, many school policies are lagging behind.

Let us look at a few examples in which certain actions that should have been applauded by a school board, were instead deemed as inappropriate.

On March 31 2014, a teacher named Jennifer Mitts was forced to resign from her position with Red Bank High School based on her selfless actions. The well liked, Mitts drove a 20-year-old student, lacking health insurance, to the hospital and paid for the bill. This incident sounded extremely familiar to actions that Mitts had undertaken last year and was previously scolded as a consequence. Last year, Mitts drove a pregnant student tentatively diagnosed by the nurse to have pneumonia to the doctor, saving the life of the unborn child and Red Bank student.

Rather than receiving praise for her actions, Mitts earned a slap on the wrist and ultimately a forced resignation. The school board originally regarded the primary hospital visit as inappropriate and after learning of her recent actions, “forced” her to sign a letter of resignation. This is justified by the assistant superintendent, Stacey Stewart who called Jennifer Mitt’s actions, a liability issue, an issue of insubordination as she was already scolded for similar actions and finally a neglect of duty after leaving the classroom unattended. There is currently a petition circulating in order to return Jennifer Mitts to her teaching position, that has already received 500 signatures.

There is debate over whether Jennifer has the grounds to file a lawsuit. Mitts is claiming that with the signing of her resignation, she was forced to waive her rights to a hearing. On the other hand, officials are claiming that Mitts was only going to be suspended temporarily and the resignation was voluntary. A lawsuit may be filed against the school board in the near future.

A similar story that circulated the news on March 26, is the suspension of third grader Kamryn Renfro, who shaved her head in support of her cancer ridden friend, Delaney Clements. Rather than administrators at Caprock Academy of Colorado applauding the brave actions of the young Kamryn, they instead disciplined her for violating the dress code. The school board chairman, Catherine Norton Breman explained that the school dress code policy is very detailed in order to prevent a distracting environment and promote uniformity. Therefore, shaved heads are not permitted.

Kamryn was forbidden to return to school on Monday, March 24. However on Tuesday, when this story broke to the news world, Kamryn was temporarily readmitted to school. Finally, a vote was taken regarding the issue and the Caprock Academy School Board readmitted Kamryn to school in a 3 to 1 vote on March 25.

I fully understand that certain policies are in place to keep order within a school setting such as requiring a teacher to be present in a classroom or labeling certain clothing items as outside of the realm of dress code. Although, there are extreme cases that should overrule the school policies in place because some things can be considered more important than a school policy. For example, let’s say, a student’s life or maybe even the compassion a little girl shows to a friend who is fighting cancer. Yes, school policies are there for a reason and should often times be enforced, however these extreme cases are exceptions. I do not believe that either of these individuals should have received disciplinary actions for their noble behavior simply because they may have bent a few rules. Sometimes, rules are meant to be broken.

[The Huffington Post] [The Huffington Post]