A day after the school board voted to fire her, the infamous teacher blogger is speaking out and taking action. She spoke exclusively to NBC10 about her lawsuit against the school district.
Honors English teacher Natalie Munroe made headlines back in February 2011 after a blog was discovered where she vented about her students, referring to them as “lazy,” “frightfully dim,” and “rat-like.” She didn’t mention any students by name or refer to her school, Central Bucks East High School, where she taught for six years.
Her blog led to her suspension for the rest of that school year. The school’s principal, Abram Lucabaugh was forced to take her back last Fall, and stated that it was only because of her legal rights and the district's refusal to spend taxpayer money on a legal battle. Upon her return, Munroe claims she was held to different standards than other teachers.
“They would have administrators come in and observe me unannounced and then nitpick every single thing that I had done,” said Munroe. “These were lessons I had done effectively in year’s past and received satisfactory ratings. Suddenly they were unsatisfactory.”
Munroe claims administrators performed spontaneous observations in her class 13 times over the school year and made her submit her lessons in advance. She also says on June 1, she was told she would be fired for incompetence.
“I am the furthest thing from incompetent so that was ridiculous,” said Munroe.
Munroe and her lawyer say the First Amendment protects her from being fired for her comments on her blog. They also believe the district used incompetence as an excuse to let her go. They filed a federal suit against the Central Bucks School District last week.
“They brought her back to fail,” said her attorney Steven Rovner. “What they did is they made her a special teacher in the district, teaching the same classes but under a different set of standards than every other teacher in the district.”
On Tuesday, the school board unanimously voted to fire her. Despite this, Munroe says she doesn’t regret the words she wrote in her blog.
“They were honest,” said Munroe. “They weren’t meant to encompass every student in the world. They were for some students and they were meant to be private comments that I made to friends and family.”
In her lawsuit, Munroe asks for her job back and damages. NBC10 also reached out to the Central Bucks School District who did not return our calls.
NBC10’s Aditi Roy will be live on the Today Show on Thursday where more of her interview with Munroe will be revealed.
