Veteran Teacher -- Canned for Letter -- Plans to Sue Florida School District
by Jim Brown
September 22, 2005
(AgapePress) - A veteran Florida school teacher who was forced out of her job for writing a letter to lawmakers complaining about illegal immigration intends to sue her school district.Orange County school officials have apologized repeatedly to outraged members of the Hispanic community for Jan Hall's letter, which expressed concern that illegal immigration is draining tax dollars and hurting the public education system. The letter also stated that several Puerto Rican teachers in the district lacked proper educational qualifications.
After the Spanish-language newspaper El Nuevo Dia obtained and published the letter, Orange County school officials suspended the longtime teacher without pay and barred her from all school property in the district.
Now Hall has notified the district of her intent to file a $20-million lawsuit. A spokesman for Hall, local conservative talk-show host Doug Guetzloe, says the teacher was merely exercising her free-speech rights.
"[W]e have [had] registered sex offenders that have worked in the Orange County public schools that have been suspended with pay," Guetzloe notes. In that light, he says, it makes no sense to have a "teacher with an unblemished record, someone who teaches students and teaches them well, [and] cares about her students, suspended without pay because of publication of a letter which was never intended to be [made] public."
Guetzloe believes the district is unfairly portraying Hall as a racist. He takes issue strongly with that insinuation.
"Mrs. Hall is someone who has, out of her own pocket, purchased shoes for students who have shown up without shoes so that they would not be sent home. Does that sound to any reasonable person like a bigot?" he wonders. "The other thing is that when she chose to do her dissertation for her master's degree, she chose to go to Mexico City. Now if you were a bigot, you certainly wouldn't go to Mexico City."
Guetzloe adds that Hall, who has 33 years of teaching experience, even conducts free after-school tutoring for Hispanic students who struggle academically.
Orange County school officials have six months to respond to Hall's notice of intent to sue.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
