CB East Teacher Removed After Blogging About Students

A Central Bucks East High School English teacher has been removed from the school after a controversial blog post from a year ago enraged her current and former students and parents on Tuesday.

Natalie Munroe, who has been at Central Bucks East since 2006, teaches English.

CB East principal Abram Lucabaugh said Wednesday morning that he and the district administrators found out about the post this morning.

“We were made aware of the situation this morning,” Lucabaugh said. “I have removed the teacher from the school. The matter is currently under investigation.”

Lucabaugh referred questions about policies for teachers and staff about online behavior to the school district.

Central Bucks School District spokeswoman Carol Counihan said Munroe has been suspended pending the investigation.

As to whether Central Bucks has a written or even verbal policy for staff and faculty on what they should or shouldn't say online, Counihan said that is part of the investigation.

"I'm sure that's part of what they'll be looking at as this unfolds," she said Wednesday.

The debate centers over a post Munroe wrote on her blog just over a year ago. Entitled, “If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say…” it outlined the things she wished she could really say to parents about her students’ performance and personalities.

They include:

• “A complete and utter jerk in all ways. Although academically ok, your child has no other redeeming qualities.”
• “One of the few students I can abide this semester!”
• “Has no business being in Academic.”
• “Lazy asshole.”
• “Just as bad as his sibling. Don’t you know how to raise kids?”
• “Weirdest kid I’ve ever met.”
• “I hear the trash company is hiring…”
• “There’s no other way to say this: I hate your kid.”

It ends with, “Thus, the old adage…if you don’t have anything nice to say…say 'cooperative in class.'"

For a year, the only response to the post was a “These are effing awesome” boost from someone, presumably a friend.

But the next response reveals the danger of the Internet, where everything ever written can be seen by all.

“Jokes on you because this link is being cycled throughout the students of CB East via facebook. Have fun applying for unemployment. Sincerely, ‘cooperative in class.’” Was posted at 5:54 p.m. on Tuesday night.

From there, word of Munroe’s blog spread via Facebook and Twitter.

The blog had been taken down early Wednesday morning, but in the age of the Internet, nothing is truly gone.

Printouts of the blog as it read late Tuesday night document the exchange, as do screenshots of the blog post and the scathing responses from people who identified themselves as Munroe’s current or former students.

Here are some excerpts, unedited except to remove an unprintable word:

“Well..good luck getting a job as a teacher anywhere else. If you’re in a school district as prestigious as CB East, you should act like it and stop blubbering to people who couldn’t care less about your life. Just because you hate your job, doesn’t make it okay to whine about it on the internet.”

“You have cheated, screwed and under-cut every single one of your students this year. And I speak for everyone when I say you were a douche to all of your students in class and made no effort to help any of us achieve our academic goals. Maybe you should learn to teach and be compassionate with your students. Respect goes a long way, and the only way people will respect you is if you respect them (too late). Have a nice life. Good luck with the inner-city shithole they call a school in philly.”

“I’m not sure if you remember me, but you were by far the worst teacher I’ve ever had because you were simply a (unprintable word)……I also heard that this little stunt is getting your fired, and to all the students and parents that you’ve pissed off over the years, I’m going to take this opportunity to say good riddance!”

“Real Classy Ms. Munroe. I just have to say that I am very disappointed by this. I originally didn’t completely loath you like the rest of the junior class, but now my feelings have changed….Also, how could you not have even thought to delete this? The worst of the posts are from a year ago, why didn’t you delete them? It’s understandable to want to talk about your day at work, but the internet, seriously?”

“I’m just glad I had Hendrickson and Rosini my first couple years at East, I couldn’t stand the thought of someone like you secretly bashing me and my classmates. Shame on you.”

“Hit the screenshot button so many times, it’s borderline rape.”

“As a former student of yours, I am so happy to see you mess up this bad. I pray and hope you get fired for this. The reason that you encounter any of these problems is because you are simply the most hated teacher in the school…I hope that you never return from maternity leave, things do not get better, and that you enjoy working for your local trash company