Natalie Munroe, Pa. teacher who blogged about students, gets fired

By: Barry Leibowitz
Topics: Daily Blotter

Natalie Munroe

/ AP Photo/Matt Rourke

(CBS) DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - Natalie Munroe, the Pennsylvania high school teacher who blogged about her students, calling them "lazy whiners" among other things, was fired Tuesday, CBS Philly reported.

At Tuesday night's Central Bucks School District board meeting, Munroe was dismissed from her position as an English teacher at Central Bucks East High School. A few days earlier, she sued the district, claiming it violated her 1st amendment rights to free speech.

When Munroe's blog was discovered by studentse in early 2011, it garnered national attention.

The school board president claimed Munroe's termination was not related to her blog, but rather her classroom performance, CBSPhilly reported.

"Ms. Munroe's lawsuit against the district asserts that she was an excellent teacher and given excellent ratings. Nothing could be further from the truth, said School Board President Paul Faulkner at Tuesday night's meeting. "Ms. Munroe was, at best, a satisfactory teacher and was experiencing performance difficulties well before her blog became an issue," he said.

Munroe's lawyer, Steven Rovner, begged to differ.

Her termination "is a result of what she said in her blog which is protected speech," he said. "[The District] spent the whole year setting her up to fail," Rovner said.

Complete coverage of the Natalie Munroe case on Crimesider

10 Comments +

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by tinkerbell9693 July 4, 2012 1:32 AM EDT

Keep in mind that this comment is coming from a student from this school, none the less from the graduated class that this blog was about.

Lets start this by saying, one of the schools big focuses were on bullying and that all classrooms inside the building were suppoused to be a safe enviroment. Well apparently that was far from what the truth was because obviously ms. Munroe was judging and bullying her students, becuase lets be honest if you really think about it that is some cyber bullying. Yes maybe her students, my fellow graduates, were whinners but wasn't it her job to attempt to make the classroom somewhere that they wanted to be and wanted to learn. Does anyone ever mention that all the students in the school prayed when they recieved their yearly schedual that Munroe wasn't their teacher because her classes were bland. She also was overpowering acting as if she ruled the school.

Now dont get me wrong I agree with her on quiet a few of her comments, but was it her place to say anything, NO. Was it her place to go to the internet and broadcast it to the whole world, NO. And my thoughts at this point is the only thing that she sees from this whole thing is dollar signs.

Well Ms. Munroe you might get what you wanted and make money off of this but realize what you caused, do students trust their teachers like they did before, nope. Do you really think that your gonna make enough money off the law suit to sustain you and your family for the rest of your life because lets be honest here do you think that any other district would be stupid enough to allow a teacher who pulled such a stunt into a position there, NO that would be a giant risk that no orginization is going to take and after all you just ruined your career.

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by mmagliaro July 9, 2012 8:08 PM EDT: Judging from the way you write, Natalie Munroe was spot on in her assessment of students at that school. What she did was not bullying. It certainly was her place to comment. She's calling it like it is, and for that, I applaud her. Her only mistake was attaching her own identity to her comments. She should have posted them anonymously.

Learn how to spell. Learn how to write. Stop proving that Munroe was accurate about her students being lazy.


by cinderella5311 July 2, 2012 10:35 PM EDT: I agree with Whereisthesanity. Coming from a student who is also related to teachers, the situation you described about the current atmosphere of teaching is completely accurate. Any kind of disciplinary action that needs to be taken, especially on seniors, is swept aside with a simple, "We've only got this semester left with them. Let's just push them through to graduation." The way education is treated is not doing the students any favors. Miss school? Nobody bats an eye. It's going to be a big wake-up call when these students graduate and work in full-time, "grown-up" jobs where calling in because you don't feel like it is unacceptable. The student in me is disgusted by the acts of my generation. While I and a few others still honor the traditional roles of respect, manners, and punishment, the majority of students today seem to brush them off. I guess my main point is that it is not ALL the teachers' fault (obviously, every party in the situation has at least some influence on the problem).

Also, I'm choosing not to make a strong comment on the actual outcome of the case at hand. There are many factors to consider in the situation, and only those directly involved with it have access to the complete information (No, that does not include someone who has a student that goes to a school ten minutes away and has heard from a friend of her brother's hairdresser that he/she gets information from).; Reply to this comment


by emersontl June 28, 2012 6:01 PM EDT: Bravo Natalie.

i speculate most teachers would agree with your observations.

This is another unfortunate example to Jerry Springer Trailer Trash (in this case both the school board or government officials and irresponsible parents) driving our society and our educational system is failing.

Once again inept parents and their self indulgent children are encouraged to play victim and opposed to taking a look in the mirror.; Reply to this comment


by MojitoMamma June 28, 2012 9:17 AM EDT: This proves that the spinless cowards on the school board can have their feelings hurt by THE TRUTH. They're just blaming the messenger, and the fact still remains that kids nowadays ARE lazy whiners and out of control. Teachers cannot teach nowadays because kids have not been raised properly at home. Teachers spend too much time on basic manners and classroom comportment - there's no time to really teach anything like math, science, reading, writing, etc. There are a lot of teachers who share this woman's feelings of frustration, burn-out, and disillusionment - just ask them off the record and you will get an ear-full.; Reply to this comment


by Martha12345 June 28, 2012 8:34 AM EDT: The blog was inappropriate. I suspect the students were whining. Should she have been fired ? No. Should she have been disciplined ? Yes. Lots of politics involved ? You bet.; Reply to this comment

by jmailbox June 27, 2012 7:58 PM EDT

Any teacher can be called a "poor performing teacher" because the damm kids don't want to learn anything anymore.

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by MsMGV June 28, 2012 7:57 AM EDT: FREE SPEECH YES ! But

THE SCHOOL RULES APPLY. NOW IS SHE CORRECT ABOUT STUDENTS AND FAMILY VIEWS? AS A RETIRED ATTY THIS IS???..IN MY OP UNFORTUNATE AND PERHAPS SHE HAS A PROB WITH STUDENTS OF OTHER CULTURES AND CHOSE TO BLOG IN GENERALITIES VS CALLING OUT NAMES

? I would suggest that the teacher may be a hidden racist I researched the school which is how i came to my thoughts..The school has many many children of other races forced there by school DESEG GRE GATION

Perhaps
She is calling out for help perhaps overwhelmed by some of the antics vof students and simply does not have another way to seek TIME OUT? Maybe she needs validation attention or a book deal? I say she is cunning conniving and a undercover racist?


by marcywalker July 2, 2012 2:54 PM EDT: She should have been fired. What is she five? A child with no filter on her mouth. She knew as a teacher she was failing and had to blame some one and that was the students. Remember this was a AP class she was teaching, from the looks of her the students were smarter than the teacher. I am so glad she will never teach gain. This blog story I came across sums it up very well . http://chasinthenews.wordpress.com/


by wolfmagic2012 June 27, 2012 6:15 PM EDT: Part of a teacher's job is to inspire those "lazy whiners" out of their comfort zone and into education. This sounds like an amateurish set-up by the school district against her, but really - perhaps she is in the wrong line of work if she deflects teaching difficulties all onto her students, and takes no responsibility for herself.; Reply to this comment

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