Seattle teacher should be fired for hypocritical decisions

Update: In her interview, Carol Burton admits she willfully ignored the co-ed rooms rule with a defense we’ve never heard before: that it was inequitably treating LGBT students. She found out about the rule in October 2014, but when asked if she ever complained to the school, she said no.

–Original story–

Garfield High School choir director Carol Burton is about to get canned, according to her lawyer Kevin Peck.

She 100 percent &#8212 without a shadow of a doubt &#8212 deserves to get canned. Of course, she doesn’t see it that way.

“I think I have paid and would be willing to absolutely make amends to repair that damage,” Burton said on my show Thursday night. “I don’t know that with 14 years of pretty darn good service it is worth throwing me out over such indiscretions.”

Here’s what happened:

In March, Garfield High students went to New Orleans as part of a school choir trip. She drank alcohol during the trip, which is against school policy. Parent chaperones were also drinking.

One night, a parent was visibly drunk and had to be helped back to a hotel room. Another allegedly had an inappropriate encounter with a student while under the influence. But this isn’t even the worst violation.

During the trip, a teenage boy allegedly groped teen girls in one of their hotel rooms.

Boys and girls are not supposed to be in hotel rooms of the opposite sex. That’s a rule.

Burton admits she didn’t explicitly tell the kids the rule and, according to a district investigation, she “permitted male and female students to be in each other’s rooms before curfew.”

The school might fire her soon. Her lawyer, Peck, said that he will appeal the decision and attempt to get Burton’s job back.

Burton’s reaction to this is so shocking, off-putting and, frankly, insulting.

“I had two-and-a-half drinks in five days and those drinks were the most expensive drinks in my life. They’ve cost my career, apparently,” Burton said Thursday morning to The Seattle Times. “Those drinks seem to be worth more than all of the students who want me back, all of the parents who want me back, all of my staff who want me back, my principal who wants me back.”

We’ll get to the drinking in a second, but what’s noticeably absent from this statement?

The fact that girls got groped on the trip as a direct result of your inability to do the bare minimum, which would have simply been to tell the kids about the rule. Simply warn them not to visit each other’s hotel rooms.

She’s not willing to own up to it nor is she willing to take punishment. Instead, she glosses over the groping and focuses on the drinking because what you want to do is appeal to some adult who will say, “well, just a few drinks when the kids aren’t around isn’t that big of a deal.”

Shame on this woman &#8212 I guess the groping that she admitted took place because of her irresponsibility isn’t all that important.

“I think it’s outrageous that those girls were groped,” Burton said. “I’ve taken 48 overnight field trips in my past 14 years. I’ve taken approximately 2,500 kids overnight, and in every single case boys and girls were allowed to co-mingle in rooms or cabins before curfew.”

“I have never had, with all of those students, a problem with sexual misconduct,” she added, noting the co-mingling in hotel rooms rule is a new one that she neglected to enforce the first few months of its implementation.

Burton also said that the district’s rule is inefficient and doesn’t take into account gay or transgender students. She said that while she wanted to find a way to equally administer the rule, but could not find one. She further said that the district has no interest in addressing the issue.

I told Burton that the gay issue she brings up is offensive and has nothing to do with the matters at hand.

Let’s talk about the drinking.

“I can’t defend the alcohol,” Burton said. “It was a gross mistake. It wasn’t excessive, but it was a mistake.” “I don’t defend it.”

I don’t care if she accidentally swallowed a cap full of Listerine &#8212 if the rule is not to drink on these trips, it means you don’t drink. Not two-and-a-half glasses of wine, not a shot of Vodka, not a sip of beer. It means you do not drink.

Some kid brings a bottle of Tylenol to school and gets popped for bringing illegal drugs to campus and gets suspended or expelled. Don’t think it happens? Look up the case of ninth grader Tracy Jannicelli.

It’s real rough when you have to hold yourself accountable to the rules you hold against students, isn’t it? And the thing is, what this teacher did is worse than half the things kids get popped unfairly for.