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Wrongful termination - Doesn't understand MS

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Hello. My name is Bill and I am a high school math teacher of 19 years in public schools and another 5 years of private schools prior to that. My wife, Garen, would be beginning her 29th year of public education at age 49 in February. That will no longer be happening.

My wife has an assortment of health issues, foremost among them are Type 1 Diabetes and MS. She has been diabetic since she was a teen. She was diagnosed with MS over 20 years ago.

Five years ago, she transferred into a position at a new school. Because she voluntarily surplused herself, the Principal was required to accept her, but, since she wasn't selected by the Principal, she immediately began the process of trying to get Garen removed. She was reprimanded for not mailing out letters to parents in the manner that the new school utilized during the first week of school. Among other things she was also accused of recording an interview between the Principal and a student that she was asked to sit in on and take notes. What the Principal thought was a recording device was actually my wife's glucose monitor. It made no difference. The Principal even tried to say that my wife was suicidal to further her agenda. Garen would have been fired had we not had the foresight to file an EEOC complaint against the Principal while this was happening.

Garen was moved to a new school and allowed to continue working provided she dropped the EEOC complaint. Backed into a corner, she did.

Everything was fine until the Summer of 2021. Garen signed up to work a Summer School teaching position for Pre-K students. On the 4th morning of Summer School, she was directed to go home as some charges had been brought to light and were being investigated. Garen's two aides were accusing her of all sorts of improprieties. Garen called a young girl 'ugly.' Garen pushed a student who had pushed her. Garen laughed when an aide said a child was playing with an electrical socket (even though all sockets were above counter level and had child-protection plugs in them). One ridiculous allegation after the other were made. But the aides did not know about Garen's MS. Twenty years of MS make Garen unable to lift anything over 20 lbs. She has to have someone load up her car and help her to get everything out of her car during any trip to or from school. The aides accused her of grabbing a student by the ankles, standing up, lifting him off the ground and laughing about it all while holding the child in the air. You may as well ask my wife to lift her SUV off of the ground. It is not physically possible for her to have done that. In our minds, this should call everything the aides said into question.

The School District investigator did not agree. The School Board that he reported to did not agree. Despite having each of my wife's last two , former and current, neurologists emphatically state that what she was accused of couldn't have happened, the Judge who heard our case in November today rendered her verdict and she did not agree, either. "Two against one. Sorry."

Now, not only will my wife be officially terminated from her current position of teaching English to adults at a local Technical College, but she will also lose her teaching certificate and no longer be able to teach. Garen not only has her Bachelor's in SLD and Elementary Education but also a Master's degree in Counseling and EdS degree in Administration. None of those will be worth anything without a Teaching Certificate.

Because of those additional degrees and her longevity in her career, Garen is the main bread-winner in the household. She started teaching right out of college. Beginning next month, mortgage payments, car payments, & medical insurance for her and our teenage children will not be available.

If you've ever been bullied by the system, wrongfully accused of something you did not do, or have had a loved one who suffers from chronic health issues, please help our family. If you had a teacher, a good one that you've remembered their name for decades because of the role they played, donate to our family as a way to thank them. Give back to one of the good teachers who gave of themselves to help mold people like you into the person you are today.

God Bless You.
Bill & Garen Schaefer

Organizer

Bill Schaefer
Organizer
Bradenton, FL

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