Doug Bartlett, a veteran teacher with an upstanding record of 17 years, has filed a lawsuit against the school district of Chicago for suspending him without pay after giving a lesson on gardening tools to his second grade students.
The incident took place on August 8, 2011 at Washington Irving Elementary School.
Mr. Bartlett recently filed suit on April 17, 2013 saying that he suffered humiliation and embarrassment as a result of his reprimand.
The “hazardous” tools in question were pliers, screwdrivers and wrenches that only the teacher handled. The tools were kept in a locked toolbox high on a shelf out of reach before and after the gardening lesson.
The district says that Mr. Bartlett exhibited negligence in supervising the children and for “possessing, carrying, storing, or using a weapon”. Â He was subsequently suspended without pay for 4 days.
Mr. Bartlett’s lawsuit claims the suspension violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process as he asserts that there was never a full hearing on the incident. Â Further, he was disciplined without ever having the opportunity to plead his case.
According to the Rutherford Institute which is representing him, Mr. Bartlett is seeking damages and requesting the suspension be expunged from his teaching record.
It is important to have electronic records in order as the charge of possessing a “weapon”, in this case gardening tools, has the potential to prevent Mr. Bartlett from seeking employment elsewhere.
The incident is yet another example of an over the top reaction by school officials demonstrating poor judgment and a gross lack of common sense.
A related story occurred in the Fall of 2012 when the Vice Principal of a California school suspended a boy for bringing kombucha in his lunchbox.  With no parent or guardian present at any time, the boy was interrogated in the school office by school administration and a police officer and was ultimately suspended for 5 days for “violating” the school’s drug and alcohol policy. No tests were ever performed on the beverage which is able to be legally purchased by minors at local stores.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Teacher Who Showed Garden Tools to Second Grade Students is Suspended Without Pay
This is why we have so many ppl walking around knowing NOTHING!
American regulations go wild…
Common sense run amuck!
Gardening isn’t part of the “common core” as it would help students learn how to fend for themselves instead of relying on the government!
I guess in this day and age as a teacher he should have approached the district with his idea first. Sad.
This is one of the silliest things I’ve heard in a long time. What is wrong with people?
this is crazy..our world is becoming a world full of idiots
Only in america… = (
That is just retarded!
Tracy, perhaps you’d consider using the word ridiculous instead? You’d get across the same meaning and not hurt people’s feelings with a word that some consider to be a derogatory slur. Please.
How is it considered “retarded”? I think you could use a better word to express your opinion. Use of the word “retarded” in this way is offensive to many people….not just those with children who have intellectual disabilities or developmental delay or those individuals who have intellectual disabilities or developmental delay.
OMG… Why does everything have to be so “politically correct” all the time.. You know what she meant for goodness sake…. GET OVER IT….
RETARDED… RETARTED… RETARDED… RETARDED… RETARDED!
If the shoe fits… well, you know. You’re right, tracy. Out with PC!
It’s not an acceptable word. Accept it and move on. Stop being the person in 1962 saying the n word has historicaluse so people should get over it. The r word is just as offensive toany.
sorry that doesn’t fly. the “n” word has only one meaning and it is disgusting and disrespectful of another human being. Retarded has more than one meaning and is acceptable dependent on usage, i.e. less advanced; slow in growth, such as something in the food supply has retarded the growth of the animal, or the Roundup I use retards the growth of the weeds. When expressing that a normal person is acting retarded or saying something retarded it means what they are saying is not on par with their age or hopefully their IQ and to most people it sounds foolish or unreasonable. Or something retarded could be as I believe this person meant it, that what action was taken by the school against this teacher was so foolish and unreasonable that it could be taken as a retarded action. In the context of being used, It should not necessarily conjure up a picture of being mean or cruel to a physically or mentally severely challenged person..
To KATIE and DEBORAH: Political Correctness is another term for RESTRICTED SPEECH. If you can’t handle a word or two, GROW A PAIR! If you don’t want that, go live in North Korea, or England where you can get PUT IN JAIL just for saying the word HOMOSEXUAL(which is not even a slur by the way)! You’ll notice that it wasn’t until the early to mid 90’s that people started getting their panties in a bunch about what words people use and how they use them. How EVER did people talk and get their points across before then? It’s called, COMMON SENSE. DISCERNMENT. You are smart enough, at least I hope you are, that you KNOW what people mean when they say stuff like, “oh, that’s retarded!”, or “oh, that’s so gay!”. Maybe we should stop using adjectives ALTOGETHER just to appease the .2% like YOU who get butthurt over the most RETARDED STUFF! I’m a Vet(DON’T THANK ME) and I don’t really think that I’ve served my country only to come back to have someone wave their finger in my face and tell me, “you can’t talk like that, you might offend someone!” No one, I repeat: NO ONE WILL BAR ME FROM UTILIZING MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH! To Sarah: unless you have a kid who is ‘challenged’ shall we say, GET OFF IT and quit drinking your kool-aid. It’s because of people like YOU that our GOD GIVEN rights in general have been chipped away year after year, all in the name of PROGRESS, HOPE, MOVE FORWARD…. all slogans for communist and marxist dictators who disarmed the populace right before putting them through unspeakable horrors. I’m not too keen on promoting that stuff in the USA much less anywhere else, so please, just stop lady!
A BIG AMEN TO ALL THAT!
Wow, just wow. I want to make a few points. First of all the teacher did nothing wrong. Kids are curious right? If we don’t yech them things like (don’t run with scissors) they’ll do it. If we spend a little bit of time and introduce news things AND teach them how to safely use new things they won’t be so curious. I might be going a lil off subject but my point is this, now they know what these things are and when they find them in the garage there’s less chance of injury if the child understands mishandling of the items could lead to injury, they now know what they are and are much less curious. I’m sure this was not the lesson the teacher was going for but the point is it helped them more than hurt them. As a rule the more things you keep your kids from the more they want them, the more curious they become. Stop sheltering and start teaching. As far as the retard comment!!!!! C’mon really? You know what the author of that comment was trying to say and it was not derogatory get over it. I live in the country and didn’t know “midget” was offensive till last year now it’s little people I mean isn’t it the same thing? The word midget means a lil person. People don’t like being called black , but can call me white ? You want me to address you as African American even though you , your parents, grand parents never been to Africa and giving a history test on Africa you’d fail it. Just am example of how all we look for is blame and something to bitch about. Sad part our kids are learning this too
If you are offended, maybe you should spend some time in a sand blaster, grow some god damn skin. It’s PEOPLE LIKE YOU that insisted on ZERO TOLERANCE policies that very well may cost this man his career. FU.
I completely agree with Tracy Beteta. Well said. Brief and concise. Katie and Deborah you epitomise exactly what she is speaking of.
I agree with Guest. I worked at ARC for many years and have nieces and cousin who are mental and physically disabled. The word retarded does not refer to them anymore. we dont even say handicapped any more. so this is just slag like WTF.
Wow….Completely ridiculous. What CAN you do in school these days without getting suspended? I seriously worry about the public education system.