What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arizona
I am a student at Cochise College in Sierra Vista AZ. I am in my second semester of Ceramics with a really great teacher. Currently my teacher is about to be fired over fraudulent documents that my classmates and I were tricked into signing. This has become a long, drawn-out mess of a situation, so I am going to try to state it as plainly as possible. I'm sorry if this is a bit long.
Our problems started last semester when one of the students developed an enormous grudge against our instructor Clara. Its been revealed that it was because Clara would not let her sub (this student does not have a teaching degree). Most of us thought very highly of this student, and Clara especially liked her, so when she passed around a petition for us to sign, claiming it was for classroom supplies, we signed it and did not question her. She had written the subject of the petition at the top in pencil. After she got signatures from myself and a couple of other students in my class, she took the paper home, apparently erased the header and ran it through a printer so that the header stated it was a petition to ask for Clara's termination.
About the second week of this semester my teacher came to me on the verge of tears and asked if she could speak to me. She wanted to know what she had done to upset me, and could she fix it. I had no idea what she was talking about until she told me about the petition. Another one of my classmates mentioned that she had been approached by the other student and asked to sign a petition to get Clara fired. We think this student went to several of my classmates honestly, until she realized we all liked our instructor and would not sign a petition against her. Then she started lying about it.
The administration seems to not be interested in investigating it at all. When I personally went to speak to The Vice President of the Campus, he full on rolled his eyes at me and did not take me very seriously until I asked him to show me the petition and I pointed out my name and asked him to remove it. Then he got really quiet and started listening to what I had to say.
In all there are seven names on the petition. The first signature is the disgruntled student's (prompting everyone to sign below her, thus leaving the margin for the header). Three are from Clara's class (mine, an older man in my class, and a girl from last year who no longer attends) All of these have been proven to be deceitfully obtained. Two others are from girls that the student knows personally, neither of whom have ever been in Clara's class. The last signature has been deemed illegible.
In addition to the petition, The student and her two friends who also signed the petition have racked up a ton of complaints and false claims against our instructor. The most frequent being that she purposely breaks their pottery because she does not like them (this to me sounds too absurd for any rational person to believe), that Clara was not there to teach her own classes, so the student had to step in and teach them for her, and that she was never present in the classroom enough to help the people who needed it.
All her other students can verify that most if not all of this information is false. Clara was almost always present in the department. She tried to spend time with each of the students individually. All around, she was a great teacher. So far about 50 students have written in to the President of the campus to try to get the decision reversed, but no luck.
Both the President and Vice President of the college have commented that the petition is fraudulent and can no longer be regarded as grounds for firing her, but it still was the initial thing that got her called into the office in the first place, and continues to pop up as an issue in all her conversations with the administration. I'm not sure if it is just bad communication between administrators, or if some of them are just being hard headed. The Dean of Students is the main person behind her termination.
The Dean, for whatever reason, hates my teacher. It may well be a matter of pride and not wanting to admit that he was deceived and is wrong in not recommending her for rehire at this point. He flat out refuses to speak to any of us (students) about the issue. He claims that last semester he observed her teaching an all the other girls claims were true. I took several classes with her, and was at the school most days. I and all my classmates can verify that just about everything that he and these three girls are saying is bunk.
I feel that we as students have exhausted just about all of our resources, and all of my teachers questions and phone calls are still going unanswered. She has about given up hope on saving her job, but I have seen similar situations turn around, so I don't want to quit trying, since I know the students in her class can have a lot of influence on the situation and how it is handled.
I guess my main questions are:
What can we as students do about the fraudulent use of our names? Is a civil suit the right way to go? What should out Teacher do?
If she does lose her job, what legal action could she take against the school?
I am a student at Cochise College in Sierra Vista AZ. I am in my second semester of Ceramics with a really great teacher. Currently my teacher is about to be fired over fraudulent documents that my classmates and I were tricked into signing. This has become a long, drawn-out mess of a situation, so I am going to try to state it as plainly as possible. I'm sorry if this is a bit long.
Our problems started last semester when one of the students developed an enormous grudge against our instructor Clara. Its been revealed that it was because Clara would not let her sub (this student does not have a teaching degree). Most of us thought very highly of this student, and Clara especially liked her, so when she passed around a petition for us to sign, claiming it was for classroom supplies, we signed it and did not question her. She had written the subject of the petition at the top in pencil. After she got signatures from myself and a couple of other students in my class, she took the paper home, apparently erased the header and ran it through a printer so that the header stated it was a petition to ask for Clara's termination.
About the second week of this semester my teacher came to me on the verge of tears and asked if she could speak to me. She wanted to know what she had done to upset me, and could she fix it. I had no idea what she was talking about until she told me about the petition. Another one of my classmates mentioned that she had been approached by the other student and asked to sign a petition to get Clara fired. We think this student went to several of my classmates honestly, until she realized we all liked our instructor and would not sign a petition against her. Then she started lying about it.
The administration seems to not be interested in investigating it at all. When I personally went to speak to The Vice President of the Campus, he full on rolled his eyes at me and did not take me very seriously until I asked him to show me the petition and I pointed out my name and asked him to remove it. Then he got really quiet and started listening to what I had to say.
In all there are seven names on the petition. The first signature is the disgruntled student's (prompting everyone to sign below her, thus leaving the margin for the header). Three are from Clara's class (mine, an older man in my class, and a girl from last year who no longer attends) All of these have been proven to be deceitfully obtained. Two others are from girls that the student knows personally, neither of whom have ever been in Clara's class. The last signature has been deemed illegible.
In addition to the petition, The student and her two friends who also signed the petition have racked up a ton of complaints and false claims against our instructor. The most frequent being that she purposely breaks their pottery because she does not like them (this to me sounds too absurd for any rational person to believe), that Clara was not there to teach her own classes, so the student had to step in and teach them for her, and that she was never present in the classroom enough to help the people who needed it.
All her other students can verify that most if not all of this information is false. Clara was almost always present in the department. She tried to spend time with each of the students individually. All around, she was a great teacher. So far about 50 students have written in to the President of the campus to try to get the decision reversed, but no luck.
Both the President and Vice President of the college have commented that the petition is fraudulent and can no longer be regarded as grounds for firing her, but it still was the initial thing that got her called into the office in the first place, and continues to pop up as an issue in all her conversations with the administration. I'm not sure if it is just bad communication between administrators, or if some of them are just being hard headed. The Dean of Students is the main person behind her termination.
The Dean, for whatever reason, hates my teacher. It may well be a matter of pride and not wanting to admit that he was deceived and is wrong in not recommending her for rehire at this point. He flat out refuses to speak to any of us (students) about the issue. He claims that last semester he observed her teaching an all the other girls claims were true. I took several classes with her, and was at the school most days. I and all my classmates can verify that just about everything that he and these three girls are saying is bunk.
I feel that we as students have exhausted just about all of our resources, and all of my teachers questions and phone calls are still going unanswered. She has about given up hope on saving her job, but I have seen similar situations turn around, so I don't want to quit trying, since I know the students in her class can have a lot of influence on the situation and how it is handled.
I guess my main questions are:
What can we as students do about the fraudulent use of our names? Is a civil suit the right way to go? What should out Teacher do?
If she does lose her job, what legal action could she take against the school?
