A teacher in Granite Oaks Middle School was publicly shamed for showing her seventh-grade students a 10-minute CNN news clip on COVID-19. The teacher, Katie Ragan, said she thought nothing much of it. After all, she had shown the daily news program to her students several times, and many teachers across the country are showing the same video in their classes.
The particular video was about a California law that required public school students to be vaccinated against COVID. The clip characterized the law as controversial and had a detailed parental view in support and against the requirement. The teacher then asked her students to summarize the clip.
However, the teacher did not know that the day's lesson was only the beginning of a nightmare she would go through in the coming months, Sacramento Bee reports.
Threatening letters, singling her in meetings
A few days after showing the news clip to her students, the teacher received an email from Josh Nagelman, the father of a student in her class. The letter expressed that the father was angry that she showed the video in her class.
Nagelman wrote on October 11 that she would be held liable in court if she again brainwashed the students to get the vaccination. The father also said that he recommends that she comes to the district meeting on October 20 because he would be putting her on notice.
Initially, the teacher tried to respond to the father but stopped when the emails got "nastier and nastier."
During the Rocklin Unified School Board Meeting on October 20, Nagelmann singled out Ragan by name, a violation of district policy for the safety and privacy of the school teachers and staff. However, members of the school board did not stop him, as per the YouTube Live Screen of the meeting.
He also threatened members of the school board during the meeting if the school pushed with the vaccination.
Lack of support for teachers
Ragan asked the principal and the district administrator if she should continue showing the video in class. They both allowed her to continue showing the video as it was acceptable under the California Education Code.
However, despite the verbal affirmation of support from her superiors, the teacher kept receiving emails from Nagelmann. Worst, the father posted her name, school, and email address on social media. Ragan said that she was publicly shamed but did not get her superiors' support.
The principal and the district administrators met with Nagelmann without her or her representative. In the meeting, the father asked the board to send a letter to all the parents to say that the video was biased and concerning. Sadly, the administration complied with the parent's request.
Fearing for her life and publicly shamed, Ragan took stress leave for months.
Later, the district's counsel sent Nagelmann a letter demanding that he cease and desist from contacting the teacher. However, the parent kept mentioning the teacher at other school board meetings.
Ragan's colleagues were disappointed with how the school administrators handled the concern. According to a teacher, parents need to be involved in their children's education, but in this instance, the "parents were able to bully their way to get the results that they wanted."
Travis Mougeotte, president of the Rocklin Teachers Professional Association, said that the district's handling of the situation was an example of not supporting teachers. Meanwhile, Ragan has yet to decide if she will return to teaching in the school when the academic year begins.
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