Top Stories of 2011: The Blogging Teacher

Natalie Munroe.

To many in the Central Bucks School District, that name immediately and irrevocably evokes strong reactions.

The Central Bucks East High School English teacher had kept a personal blog for some time, but in February 2011, it was discovered.

The link to a post in which Munroe wrote nasty comments about her students - a list of things she wished she could say about students on their report cards - went viral. It was sent to students, parents, other Central Bucks teachers and reporters.

Within a few short hours, we here at DoylestownPatch broke the story with "."

The post that raised the most ire was one Munroe had written in 2010. Entitled, “If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say…” it outlined the things she wished she could really say to parents about her students’ performance and personalities.

They included:

• “A complete and utter jerk in all ways. Although academically ok, your child has no other redeeming qualities.”
• “One of the few students I can abide this semester!”
• “Has no business being in Academic.”
• “Lazy a**hole.”
• “Just as bad as his sibling. Don’t you know how to raise kids?”
• “Weirdest kid I’ve ever met.”
• “I hear the trash company is hiring…”
• “There’s no other way to say this: I hate your kid.”

It ends with, “Thus, the old adage…if you don’t have anything nice to say…say 'cooperative in class.'"

A piece of clip art that accompanied the post particularly enraged disability advocates and school board members. It depicted a special-needs school bus and read, “I don’t care if you lick windows, take the special bus, or occasionally pee on yourself, you hang in there sunshine, you’re friggin’ special.”

That story was merely the first of what would later grow into many, many stories about Munroe, her blog, and the fallout from it, as nearly every player - students, parents, teachers, administrators - in the Central Bucks district and well beyond came to grips with the situation.

Follow up stories ran the gamut from Munroe's revival of her by-then-deactivated blog, "" and coverage of a rally by CB East students, "."

Then, over the summer, came word that Munroe would be returning to CB East, "," but that parents would have the option of withdrawing their children from her classes, if they chose. "."

More fallout came in the form of a newly implemented social media and online behavior policy for Central Bucks School District employees, "."

As for Munroe, she still blogs, now at an eponymous website, nataliemunroe.com. And she's still teaching, though her classes this year were decidedly smaller than usual - 15, 12, and 7 students in her three classes in the first semester.