In New Mexico, a Creative Writing teacher found herself in a difficult situation when one of her students was offended by another student’s story. After being placed on administrative leave, the teacher says she felt forced to resign. Despite the incident occurring in October, it is only now going public.
Katrina Guarascio, a teacher at Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho, New Mexico,?gave her class the assignment to rewrite a fairy tale or legend with a modern setting. One of her students, following instructions, rewrote a tale about Jesus, a central biblical figure, to have him handing out marijuana to the sick. During the subsequent peer review session, one of the students claimed to be?so offended, she complained to her parents, who then filed a complaint to the school. Guarascio was subsequently placed on administrative leave pending investigation, despite not having violated any rules.
“[It was] Kind of a slap in the face [after] years of hard work,” Guarascio said to KOAT 7. The teacher had been working for the school for eight years at the time of the incident. Of the student who claimed offense, she said on Facebook that the student had been bragging to her classmates that she was going to get Guarascio fired. Now Guarascio?has resigned amid being “targeted and harassed.”
In response, the school district’s Communications Director Kim Vesely, declining to go on camera with KOAT7, released the following statement:
“The teacher involved chose to resign rather than follow the school district’s direction that classes be administered in a professional manner.”
Guarascio noted that it was “interesting” that Vesely, someone she had never met, had?claimed that “I refused to conduct my class in a professional manner, yet I was professional enough for them for the last 8 years. Once again showing how [Rio Rancho Public Schools]?does not acknowledge their teachers’ hard work and sacrifices.”
I had mentioned before that religious freedom apparently is a one-way street, but this story is particularly troublesome because of its effect on education. Christians on the far right have been trying for years to eliminate opposition to their doctrine and it’s beginning to show. One student is offended by another student’s story because it shows Jesus in a non-Republican light, and suddenly the teacher finds herself on the defensive? Being a teacher already requires massive sacrifice and constant scrutiny, and is easily one of the hardest jobs to have, especially given the minuscule pay. Now we’re seeing the religious right (and their children!) attacking teachers by weaponizing their dogma. This almost seems like a freedom of speech issue, but the student who wrote the allegedly offensive piece wasn’t the target, but rather the instructor, who believes that being disagreed with “doesn’t make your point invalid or worthless.” Was it her belief that everyone is entitled to a voice that made her a target? The student could have just asked to edit another story. To go so far as to try and get the teacher fired seems to indicate that the child’s religion was being used as an excuse to fulfill a vendetta. I wonder if her parents taught her that…?
Thankfully, the student writer has been left out of it (at least, as far as we know), but how much further will this intolerance go in our public schools?
You can watch the interview with KOAT7 below:
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David Pham is a proud Gaytheist, Gaymer, and Iraq veteran who staunchly supports minority rights and the separation of church and state. When he’s not writing, he can usually be found reading, gaming, and cracking jokes at inappropriate times. He is a former Combat Medic and EMT who now studies Psychology and is pursuing a Ph.D. in the field with the goal of teaching at the college level.
