Natalie Munroe, Pennsylvania Teacher, Reinstated After Disparaging Students On Blog

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. -- A suburban Philadelphia high school teacher suspended over a blog in which she called students "disengaged, lazy whiners" has been reinstated to her old job and is mulling whether to return this fall, her attorney said.

English teacher Natalie Munroe learned of the decision Wednesday and was taking a few days to digest it, attorney Steven L. Rovner said in a statement. She will be allowed to return to her Central Bucks East High School classroom this fall, at the same school and teaching the same classes, Rovner said.

"I personally believe that her talents as a teacher would best be utilized in a different school within the district, however, this is not an option," Rovner said. "She is taking a few days to digest this development in what has become an important national first amendment, employment, and education case."

A message left with the district by The Associated Press was not immediately returned Wednesday. The Intelligencer of Doylestown reported that the district's human resources director confirmed Munroe would return, but declined further comment.

Munroe was suspended in February after the district became aware of her blog, in which she described some students as "frightfully dim," "whiny" and "tactless."

"My students are out of control," Munroe wrote in one post. "They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying."

She also listed some comments she wished she could post on student evaluations, including: "I hear the trash company is hiring"; "I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son"; and "Just as bad as his sibling. Don't you know how to raise kids?"

Munroe did not use her full name or identify her students or school in the blog, which she started in August 2009 for friends and family. She was suspended with pay earlier this year after students brought it to the attention of the school.

Comments

[milomilano]

11:02 AM on 08/24/2011

This is outrageous! She hasn't said anything that isn't true!

[dbrett480]

03:08 PM on 08/21/2011

Come on. What teacher hasn't complained about their students?

[James Lestat Buynar]

10:54 PM on 08/14/2011

she called the kettle black and got in trouble for it. what gives???

[Roxie Lewis]

03:32 PM on 08/07/2011

People need to get real. Our kids are not perfect and most far from it. Of course teachers need to vent- so do we as parents and we are not scorned at. If parents made their kids show respect, to all, this would not be a problem. Quit backing up your kids on everything and listen to and get all the facts. Open your eyes and make your kids keep there mouths shut. They are in class to get an education - not harass teachers and party. I love my kids but I also know they are not perfect and sometimes tried to blame teachers for things that was caused by students. NO I am NOT a teacher! I wouldn't want to deal with most peoples children--TOO disrespectful!

[Virginia Dobson]

03:55 PM on 08/10/2011

I completely agree. I know many teachers who can't do their jobs because parents refuse to do theirs.

[SweetSoulMusicMan]

02:26 PM on 08/04/2011

i feel this teachers pain but...................jeeze....putting her feeling on a blog may have been a tad bit extreme....the school district didnt want to fight the law suit but they have still ended this teachers career...returning to her same school is a unworkable situation for her...she'll quit

[nmeemn]

09:31 PM on 08/01/2011

What she said is the same that my friends and I vent about over a couple of margaritas at a local (not in our district) Mexican restaurant.

It is so ridiculous that the students nowadays can get teachers into trouble just by saying something, but teachers must document, videotape and have sworn in witnesses if someone is to believe some of the things that they do, because clearly, the parents DO NOT believe that little darling is capable of doing anything wrong.

We need to stop trying to preserve their "self-esteem." I had a parent ask me for 20% of extra credit last semester because her darling "doesn't always apply himself" and therefore was failing with a 45%... which meant he wouldn't graduate. Seriously... she wanted me to give him work so "he could pass." Nevermind the fact that he did nothing all semester... he deserved to "pass."

I said no, and he didn't graduate. He's probably still sweating it at summer school.

[PirateJohn]

09:34 PM on 08/01/2011

I remember when I was a kid, if my teacher said anything bad about me to my parents, I'd be lucky if all I got was losing TV for a week. Nowadays, parents don't have the courage to actually punish their kids.

Oh, noes! Can't hurt their lil bitty self-esteem! They're not lazy, just misunderstood!

[RockyMissouri]

10:31 PM on 07/30/2011

I bet parents would be shocked to see how their little angels behave..

[Dorothy Moody]

01:20 AM on 08/01/2011

Parents never believe it when we tell them what their kids do in the classroom.

[Dede Eagleburger]

02:29 AM on 08/01/2011

you are so right!

[Madbunny]

08:28 PM on 07/30/2011

I had a student leap up and throw a chair across the room, slamming into the wall when I told him he wasn't allowed to cheat on the test.

His response? He seemed to think it was my fault for him missing the material covered in the test and that he deserved to pass the class because "I know all this #$$% already" in spite of the rather obvious empirical evidence otherwise. He then refused to leave, pretty much demanding that I come over and remove him myself.

Some children are over entitled selfish jerkholes. There is really no other way to put it, and if teachers can't vent their frustrations about the boneheads they have to deal with on top of the conservative BS that we put up with about how rich we supposedly are and how cushy our jobs are then we'll be going postal eventually.

[writerredux]

01:55 PM on 07/30/2011

Comforting the First Amendment applies even to teachers. In some European nations, an employer punishing an employee for his or comments on social media is subject to stinging fines, civil litigation and public opprobrium.

[GrammaMambo]

08:14 AM on 07/30/2011

My mother taught school for 30 years, in 1976 she quit after a student bit her and in self defense she slapped the child. There was no action taken against the student or my mother. She said she just couldn't take it anymore, there was no discipline or respect from the students or parents.

[J R M]

07:14 PM on 07/29/2011

Unwise to post it, but I have no doubt as to the truth of her observations. That said, since she used no names or identifications - why is anyone complaining? I was a good student, but it is clear that I was a pain in the ass at time at well.

[pakaal]

06:48 PM on 07/29/2011

As an educator myself, I have to say that those sorts of comments are definitely better left unexpressed, or at least only expressed amongst other educators. At the very least, some of the kids that ARE trying in class will hear about she wrote and feel discouraged.

This isn't about whether her comments are true or not, it's about which ears hear those comments, and what effect the comments have.

[PirateJohn]

09:36 PM on 08/01/2011

Maybe the effect should be that the whiny students should actually start learning to take responsibility for their actions.

[pakaal]

02:09 PM on 08/02/2011

Right, because insulting people--particularly young people--always has an immediate and positive effect on them.

[NCScientist]

04:27 PM on 07/29/2011

Many students ARE lazy and whiny.

[Virginia Dobson]

03:59 PM on 08/10/2011

The students who are lazy and entitled grow up to be adults who are lazy and entitled, who think that just because they "passed" means they are entitled to a good job, benefits, and high pay. It's a cultural thing, and we are reaping what we have sewn.

[starbldr]

06:08 PM on 07/28/2011

...with the Ms. Munroe's cited-and-presumed provocative causes she suffered, which are all irregardless of the overloads of hypocritically-made hyper-criticisms heretofore are ascribed these Munroesque-steamy words) public-school criticisms are eventually-licked-for-good via America's vaunted and unique democratic process, spell the greatest glorious days of America that no American alive today had ever eyewitnessed yet?
(5) will prompt some fool to one day sue every Marine Drill Instructor for their rough, raw and vulgar manners of turning cookie-public-school drops-out and incompetent graduates from the spoiled brats they were into those fine, strong-willed, hearted-minded-and-souled and behaviorally-matured young American citizens they get to be?
In conclusion, I wholeheartedly commend Natalie Monroe. Am convinced thoroughly of her goodwill in doing what she'd done, therefore. . .I respectfully move for the good, free and brave Citizens & Taxpayers of These Great United States of America to roundly applaud one of their very own — to altruistically-give their warranted kudos to Ms. Natalie Munroe who'd adequately-proved herself beyond the normal public school teacher of a public school system in her corner of the world. . .to become a world-class educator on her own merits! Bravo! bravo. . .to you, Ms. Natalie Munroe!!! May God bless you; and may your tribe increase not only in numbers but likewise in fiercely-fighting for whatever is deemed bests for America! For all Mankind!

--b.a. briggs

[starbldr]

06:07 PM on 07/28/2011

(1) will radically reduce juvenile delinquencies...and adult crimes all over our Great Nation, in due course?
(2) will necessarily decrease America's jailed population in the long run, while economically-reducing gradually American-taxpayers' overhead costs in humanely-maintaining this Nation's feared-and-respected prison system?
(3) will, for as long as can possibly-be scientifically-projected in America's future. . .eventually-and-surely-provide for this Nation's needs the very-competently-educated-and-readily-available patriotic—and hopefully God-fearing/loving, too!—United States Citizens that its public education system was custom-designed to constitutionally-do but can NEVER expectedly-deliver primarily (and principally-primally, let me daresay!) on account of Natalie Munroe's identified teaching-barriers that no public-school teacher, public-schools' teachers group nor the whole American public-school system in and of itself can mitigate--much less wholly-and-totally- eradicate-wholesale-once-and-for-all? which, if the American public cannot—or hesitates—to successfully rid off themselves, will not only doom this Nation's actively-decaying public-school system eventually as will eventually its incompetent graduates, but also these United States of America as we know it. . .yesterday, ultimately?
(4) will. . .in the end, once Natalie Munroe's raw-and-vulgar (as they factually are. . .in logical one-to-one correspondence—and in scientific abidance/obedience to Newton's 3rd Law of Dynamics categorically decreeing that "for every cause, there is always and equal and opposite reaction..."—....