Most of us grew up knowing that if we didn’t do our schoolwork, we would get no credit for it. We might even fail our classes.
But a Florida school has made it its mission not to let students fail their classes. Westgate K-8’s “no zero” policy recently got one of its teachers fired after she refused to comply.
Diane Tirado was a teacher for many years before she ever came to the school in Port St. Lucie.
She knew what kind of work ethic she expected from her students.
In Tirado’s mind, zero work means zero as a grade. She wasn’t about to go along with Westgate’s “no zero” policy.
The situation came to a head after Tirado assigned an Explorer workbook project. Her students had two weeks to get it done. But when several students did not hand in an assignment, Tirado graded them all with big fat zeroes.
Her Termination came quickly after that.
But even though she was being forced to leave her job, Tirado wasn’t hiding her feelings about the whole situation. In a written note to her class, she told them exactly why she would no longer be their teacher.
“Bye kids,” read the message. “Mrs. Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you 50% for not handing anything in.”
Since her termination, Tirado has taken to Facebook to share her story.
There, it has gone viral, leading to thousands of comments and an ongoing discussion of what school policies should be.
“A grade in Mrs. Tirado’s class is earned,” she wrote. “I’m so upset because we have a nation of kids that are expecting to get paid and live their life just for showing up and it’s not real. The reason I took on this fight was because it was ridiculous. Teaching should not be this hard.”
But Tirado isn’t the first teacher who has attracted attention for refusing to respect a “no-zero” policy.
Back in 2012, a teacher in Edmonton, Canada, lost his job after he graded several students with a zero. Lynden Dorval’s school, Ross Sheppard High School, had a policy that forbade teachers to fail their students. But Dorval bucked against that. After he lost his job, he took the school to court.
Dorval fought a long legal battle that lasted more than two years.
He was eventually awarded damages but was not reinstated to his former position at Ross Sheppard.
“This has really created a sort of a legal basis for teachers to finally stand up and say, ‘No. You can’t tell me, as a superintendent or a principal, you can’t tell me how to evaluate my students,’” said Dorval. “Because the judgement does say that teachers should be allowed the decision making. They are professionals and they should be treated as professionals.”
Dorval said he never considered his position was about taking a stand or that it might have legal consequences.
He said the “no-zero” policy was stupid and he never considered abiding by it. The school repealed its policy in 2013 after Dorval was fired.
Now, he hopes that his case will challenge these policies at other schools and help shape the rights of teachers. With Tirado’s case, it may very well become an ongoing conversation in the world of education.
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