chalkboard
© Wikimedia Commons
Madeline Luciano was terminated from her teaching position at P.S. 18 in New York City after officials say she had her students write down reasons why they disliked a 13-year-old classmate.

According to an investigation, the issue occurred on June 4, 2014 when the 13-year-old girl came to class with her school bag missing. The girl eventually found the bag with the contents inside out. The pages of her portfolio were also torn.

Luciano then asked her class if they knew what had occurred. The students told her that they disliked the girl and began to call her names. The educator then demanded that her students write a letter of reasons why they felt that way. Allegedly, one of the students got up and began to write down reasons on a chalkboard, though Luciano claims she did not expressly order this.

Students would later tell investigators that Luciano asked for a student to write down the comments while the other students said them aloud. "Everybody started screaming bad stuff," said one student. The comments ranged from the girl's "attitude and how fake she is around people" as well as calling her an "ugly person" and how "she annoys people," according to DNAInfo.com.

The abuse only stopped when Luciano discovered the girl crying. According to her, it was then she realized her gaffe and ceased the assignment from continuing. The student who was writing on the chalkboard then erased the board and wrote "sorry." Luciano then allegedly addressed the class saying "they needed to work as a team and that they needed to treat each other with love." According to the website, the girl has dealt with bullying in the past.

Connie Mejia, the principal of P.S. 18, fired Luciano four months after the initial incident when officials concluded their investigation. They found the teacher guilty of employee misconduct and advised the principal to execute "appropriate disciplinary action." The former teacher is now looking to appeal her termination, saying that being fired was "an abuse of discretion," according to DNAInfo.com.


Comment: Perhaps Madeline Luciano was onto something? If students were encouraged to share their thoughts and feelings about one another maybe society would turn out more compassionate human beings instead of brainwashed automatons.


Bullying results in over 4,000 deaths among young people per year, as victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. It is the third leading cause of death among students and young people, according to BullyingStatistics.org.