A Florida teacher was fired from her job… because she gave her students a 0% on homework that was not turned in.
Diane Tirado, a 17-year teaching veteran, joined West Gate K-8 School in Port St. Lucie, Florida, as an eighth grade U.S. history teacher in August.
Tirado assigned her students an “explorer notebook project,” and gave them two weeks to complete it. But when several students didn’t turn it in, Tirado gave them zeroes.
She then found out that, in the school’s student and parent handbook, teachers were forbidden from giving zeroes. The handbook stated, in big red letters, “NO ZEROS- LOWEST POSSIBLE GRADE IS 50%.”
Tirado went to school administrators to clarify the policy for work that was never received.
“What if they don’t turn anything in?” Tirado said she asked administrators. “‘We give them a 50.’ I go, ‘Oh, we don’t.’ This is not kosher.’”
Tirado was fired soon after, without administrators stating an official reason.
But Tirado managed to get the last word in: on the whiteboard in her classroom, he wrote: “Bye Kids, Mrs. Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50% for not handing anything in. <3 Mrs. Tirado.”
A screenshot of the whiteboard went viral, being shared hundreds of times.
“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.
In an interview with the Daily Wire, Tirado elaborated, “The policy is truly an extension of something that was a positive policy to keep kids up when they try so they don’t fall so far down that they can’t get back up. But that’s for kids that try. This is a different story — this is them not handing in anything.”
Administrators at West Gate have not commented on the situation.
