Here's one fool who got what she deserves. When is it going to be
generally recognized that these folks are simply nuts and that their
rituals are empty lunacy?
This woman's insistence on imposing her insanity upon her students is
the equivalent of an obsessive-compulsive handwasher spending all day
at the sink with her students and a bar of soap.
Sincerely,
NYC Teacher Fired Over Prayers
.c The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - An 11-year-old girl is too scared to go to school after her
complaints led to the firing of a public school teacher for praying with
students in class, the New York Post reported today.
Classmates told the newspaper the girl, a Jehovah's Witness, hasn't been in
class at Intermediate School 74 in the Bronx since Friday's firing.
``She was sitting in a corner at her desk packing her bag,'' 12-year-old
Jamela Berry said. ``She said she wasn't coming back.''
Mildred Rosario, 43, an untenured bilingual education teacher, prayed with her
sixth-grade class June 8 after one of the students asked whether a schoolmate
who had drowned had gone to heaven.
``I told them whoever doesn't want to participate in this conversation should
go use the computer or read some books,'' Ms. Rosario said. None of the 29
students left.
Ms. Rosario, a Pentecostalist, placed her hands on the students' heads during
a prayer.
Ms. Rosario was fired because she violated the separation of church and state,
school officials said.
``If in fact she was using her position in order to teach her religion, then
that would be a dismissible offense,'' Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.
James Pellechia, spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower Society,
said the school system was not the place for learning prayer.
``Children should be taught about prayer from their parents or religious
institutions,'' Pellechia said.
Ms. Rosario's backers disagreed.
``There would be better kids in this world today if prayer was in school,''
said Lee Murray, 54, grandfather of one pupil.
The teachers' union is backing Ms. Rosario.
AP-NY-06-17-98 1058EDT
Caroline