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Teacher Fired for Calling Students Filthy Animals Speaks
By
John Del Signore
Published Nov 3, 2008
Modified Nov 3, 2008
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By
John Del Signore
Published Nov 3, 2008
Modified Nov 3, 2008
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The 10th grade schoolteacher who was fired for calling his students"filthy animals who belonged in a f---ing zoo" has opened up to the Daily News. Last week Steven Clarke's lawsuit against against the Education Department was thrown out, with Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Shafer ruling that the principal at the Global Enterprise Academy was justified in terminating Clarke because "he had verbally abused students."
Clarke now regrets his comments, but says that the punishment doesn't fit the crime: "To kill a newborn career was an overreaction. I should have been disciplined, yes, but to have a career destroyed was too much... Understand, this was a month of relentless abuse without any support. And I am not Christ on the Cross, and I'm not going to be." He tells the News that his outburst was the culmination of months of harassment, which included having objects thrown at him, getting stabbed with a pen and having his pockets picked.
Clarke also says the unruly 10th-graders booed him incessantly and heckled, "Get the f--k out" whenever he entered the classroom. He muses that "society has failed them. It has taught them that there are no consequences for what you do in school." Clarke's now moved on with his life, and although it would be much funnier if he'd taken a job at the Bronx Zoo, he is reportedly teaching clean, non-animal adults working toward general equivalency diplomas in New Jersey.
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bronx
Cornell
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Global Enterprise Academy
public school
teacher
verbal abuse
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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