Teacher Claims She Was Fired For Not Giving Credit to Students Who Didn't Do Work

Nick Kangadis | September 26, 2018
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If you don’t hand in an assignment in school, you would think your initial grade would be zero, either as an “F” grade or an “incomplete.” One school in Florida supposedly fired a teacher for doing just that.

Eighth grade history teacher Diane Tirado continued her years as an educator at West Gate School in Port St. Lucie, Fla. in August. She never thought she’d be reprimanded and subsequently fired for giving a child an accurate grade for missing work.

Tirado claims that she was fired for giving students who didn’t turn in an assigned project they had two weeks to complete a failing grade of zero.

“What if they don’t turn anything in?" Tirado said she asked administrators, according to WPTV - West Palm Beach. "'We give them a 50.' I go, 'Oh, we don’t.' This is not kosher.’”

There might be something to Tirado’s claim, as the West Gate K-8 School Student and Parent Handbook for this school year clearly states, “NO ZERO’s - LOWEST POSSIBLE GRADE IS 50%.”

Take a look (You can see the full handbook here):

GradePolicy

After she was given the boot, Tirado shared a picture of what she wrote to her students on the class’ whiteboard upon learning of her dismissal:

Sorry, kids. Only if you do poorly, but actually turn in the assignment, should you get a 50 percent. If you turn in nothing, you should receive a nothing grade. For those playing the home game, nothing means zero percent.

“I’m so upset because we have a nation of kids that are expecting to get paid and live their life just for showing up and it’s not real,” Tirado said.

This has nothing to do with Left or Right and everything to do with right and wrong. Giving students partial credit for work they never turned in only hurts the student in the long run.

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