Munroe’s Fate Still to Be Determined

The Central Bucks School District will honor the maternity leave approved for CB East teacher Natalie Munroe before she was suspended for writing unflattering descriptions of her students in a blog, superintendent Robert Laws said last night.

But the district will explore ways to terminate Munroe’s professional contract while she is on leave, which begins at the end of the month, he said.

“Ms. Munroe, by her own actions, has made it impossible for her to teach in this district,” Laws said, reading from a prepared statement during the school board meeting. “No students should be subjected to such a hostile educational environment.”

An overflow crowd of mostly parents and teachers spilled out into the hallway outside the meeting room to hear the next chapter in the two-week saga. It erupted in applause and one prolonged standing ovation as Laws and board members took shots at Munroe, her attorney, and the media.

Munroe was and went viral. In it, Munroe made disparaging comments about her students, but never identified them or herself by name.

“It is clear…that by placing her malicious complaints, personal frustrations, and negative feelings about members of the school community on the Internet to be accessed by anyone, Munroe has lost the confidence, trust and respect of her students, their parents, and her colleagues,” said Laws.

Laws, who has been mostly silent on the matter since it broke, said “was in an uproar” as students, parents and teachers reacted with “shock and disbelief.” He said some students requested meetings with administrators and counselors, questioning their teachers’ perceptions of them.

“To restore calm in the school and to protect Ms. Munroe,” Laws said she was suspended and placed on a paid leave of absence after admitting she was the author of the blog and that some of it had been written on school equipment during the school day.

Laws criticized the media for omitting some of the more obscene comments written by Munroe. In fact, as part of his statement, Laws warned the audience that some of what he was about to read might be considered offensive, and allowed a few minutes for anyone who might be offended to leave the room.

Despite the large crowd, only one person spoke publicly about the Munroe affair. Buckingham resident Paul Calderaio, the parent of disabled child, said he was “double-shocked” to read Munroe’s comments about special needs children. He called it “a form of bullying disabled children.”

Calderaio said he doesn’t want any of his tax money “in any way, shape or form, going toward a conclusion of this matter.”

School board member Stephen Corr said he was offended by what he read and didn’t read in the local and national media in its reporting about “the inappropriate and misguided” blog by Munroe.

“Rather than report the full extent of the offensive nature of the profanity directed toward the students, the media has chosen to portray Ms. Munroe as some sort of modern day education reformer who is the victim of an unruly, disconnected mob of children,” he said. “Our students do not deserve to be thrust into this spotlight.”

Corr then went on to recite a litany of accomplishments by CB East students and teachers, including test scores, performances by special education students, Advanced Placement scores, community services and fundraising activities.

“While these facts and statistics are reviewed and discussed publicly in this room every year, they go virtually unnoticed by the publisher and editors of our community newspaper,” he said. “The reputations of our faculty and students have been sullied by the media barrage surrounding Ms. Munroe and her publicity-seeking attorney.

“Unfortunately, the public has been left with the impression that our administrators and teachers all feel the same way” as Munroe, Corr added. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I know firsthand our teachers and administrators accept and embrace their role in the continuing formation of our students from childhood to young adulthood.”

Even as negativity swirls around the district, Corr said, “positive things are happening every day in every school.”

He suggested paying more attention to and less attention to the “immature Internet rants of an inexperienced young woman who has spent less than eight semesters in a classroom.”

School board member John Gamble, whose wife has been a Central Bucks teacher for 16 years, said he was “appalled and offended” by what Munroe wrote.

“If my wife felt anything like what Ms Munroe has written, I’d personally ask her to resign today,” he said.

After the meeting, Laws said school district attorneys continue to assess options regarding “the most appropriate moves for us in terms of continuing her employment.” He said forensic experts are studying “exactly where her computer has been.

“She has put herself in an untenable position,” Laws said of Munroe. "No parent would want their child to have her in class.”

Laws said Munroe is entitled to due process, including representation by her union.

“The district has rights, too,” said Laws. “Some people have suggested that she is protected by the First Amendment. We don’t think so.”