Teacher Fired After Asking Her Students For Massages
KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- An Osceola County teacher is out of a job after parents started complaining. They said she asked third grade students to give her massages. One mother told Eyewitness News the touching going in the Kissimmee Charter Academy classroom was highly inappropriate.
In Donna Coulter's third grade class, each student had a job. It could be cleaning the room, organizing books or taking out the trash, but one task really upset parents.
"One of the jobs she was giving was to give her massages," said parent Stacey Vazquez.
Stacey told Eyewitness News almost couldn't believe what her son was telling her until he showed her what another student was asked to do.
"Like this," Stacey explained, rubbing her son's back. "Like that. So, like rubbing her back, like near the shoulders."
While it was nowhere near sexual, Vazquez said the contact was highly inappropriate. Apparently, Kissimmee Charter Academy agreed.
While school administrators did not want to go on camera, they did tell Eyewitness News that effective Tuesday Coulter no longer works there. They sent home a note to parents saying, "Due to unforeseen circumstance, Ms. Coulter will no longer be teaching your student in the third grade."
The school will not say exactly why it fired Coulter, because it is a "personnel matter." Whatever the case, Stacey said administrators made the right decision.
"That's disturbing, because there is a line between a teacher and a child and a child and a teacher," she said.
School officials say they've already replaced Coulter with a new teacher.
Eyewitness News was unable to locate Donna Coulter to get a comment. Her personnel file will be available Wednesday to see if there were any other problems.
Copyright 2008 by wftv.com.