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Teacher Mocks Students, Unleashes Full Potential Of Facebook
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 13, 2011
Modified Sep 7, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 13, 2011
Modified Sep 7, 2012
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Facebook isn't just for ordering pizza, picking up hookers, and exchanging messages with underage kids—it's also a great place for teachers to make incredibly tasteless comments and bitch about their students!
Brooklyn teacher Christine Rubino, who has taught math at PS 203 in the Flatlands neighborhood for 15 years, wrote "After today, I’m thinking the beach is a good trip for my class. I hate their guts," on her Facebook last June. This message came the day after a 12-year-old Harlem school girl drowned on a class trip to the beach. A Facebook friend asked her soon after, "Wouldn’t you throw a life jacket to little Kwami?", to which Rubino responded "No, I wouldn’t for a million dollars." A fellow teacher saw the remarks and reported her to the school. After a six-month probe (seriously), Rubino was confronted about the remarks in December; during which she claimed someone else had access to her Facebook and wrote the comments. A friend actually came forward and claimed responsibility...which no one believed for a second.
Rubino finally admitted that she made the comments "out of pure anger" at her students' rowdy behavior, but insisted the comments were unseen by parents or students. She also insisted she didn't ask her friend to cover for her: "We did not make up this story together and discuss what she would say." Rubino, who is currently awaiting termination hearings, told the Post that it was a "witch hunt", and promised she wouldn't actually drown any of her students, missing the point completely: "It was something I said out of anger. I would never take my class to the beach. I would never hurt them."
While we think that Rubino was incredibly dumb and insensitive every step of the way with this one, maybe teachers do need an anonymous way of letting off some steam about students. After all, students are able to openly bitch about and malign their teachers and professors on sites such as RateMyTeachers and RateMyProfessors with impunity. Then again, we're not sure why Rubino would need to do her venting online, besides the fact that everyone just has to express their every thought online these days.
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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