Palm Seashore County trainer appeals firing years after clown/gun joke
Diane Baumann, a veteran Palm Seashore County trainer, has confronted years of eyebrow-raising allegations. Now, the 52-year-old girl is preventing to maintain her job.
Baumann — who advised co-workers in 2014 at South Grade Elementary that she was confused and “going to be up in a tower in a clown swimsuit with a rifle” — will quickly seem earlier than an administrative regulation choose, preventing the varsity district’s current try and oust her.
The varsity district has investigated Baumann not less than six instances in eight years, with the newest questions arising in February, based on a Palm Seashore Submit evaluation of greater than 1,000 pages of public paperwork.
An in-depth look:Faculty district fires trainer who as soon as joked about clown fits and weapons
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Most lately a trainer at Okay.E. Cunningham/Canal Level Elementary within the Glades, the longtime trainer is now accused of telling one pupil “f*** you” and threatening to stay a pencil up one other pupil’s nostril.
A 3rd pupil stated in a written assertion that Baumann advised him to “bounce off a cliff.”
Baumann, who denied the newest allegations, additionally confronted repeated questions at Diamond View Elementary Faculty in Greenacres between 2019 and 2021. Faculty leaders had accused her of holding obscure lesson plans, disregarding COVID-19 insurance policies and failing to maintain correct pupil data.
Superintendent Mike Burke really useful Baumann’s termination in June after the most recent investigation, and the varsity board authorized her firing a month later. Baumann then filed a problem with the Division of Administrative Hearings in August.
A two-day listening to is scheduled for Feb. 8-9 in West Palm Seashore.
Baumann will stay on unpaid suspension through the appeals course of, based on her termination letter. Her legal professional, Mark Wilensky, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Baumann’s bother began with gun feedback in 2014
Baumann began as a trainer at West Riviera Elementary in 1998 and earned constructive evaluations for years.
It seems she prevented bother till the incident at South Grade Elementary in Lake Price Seashore in 2014.
Together with making the remark a few clown swimsuit and a rifle, she reportedly named “5 individuals who labored on the college she would shoot if she introduced a gun to the varsity,” based on a police report.
The trainer later advised police she was joking, and she or he advised college district leaders that her clown remark was referencing an episode of the TV sitcom “Roseanne.”
The Submit has since confirmed that in Season 6, Episode 5, actor Roseanne Barr says, “You are going to be capturing individuals from a tower in a clown swimsuit.”
A number of co-workers stated in police interviews that Baumann was recognized for making feedback about weapons and wanting to harm individuals. However most of these colleagues additionally vouched for the troubled trainer. She handled struggles in her private life, they stated, and she or he felt overwhelmed and unsupported in school.
“She appears very pissed off at instances when dealing with her classroom challenges,” a co-worker stated in her police assertion. “Diane doesn’t have a imply bone in her physique. Diane enjoys speaking to individuals. She would by no means hurt one other individual.”
Police deemed the gun scare an administrative matter, and the varsity district suspended Baumann for 10 days with out pay. Across the identical time, the Florida Division of Schooling performed its personal evaluation and stated, “Additional motion by this workplace isn’t warranted.”
Trainer beforehand escaped firing with assist from union
However in August 2021, after Baumann confronted repeated questions on her habits and the standard of her work at Diamond View Elementary, the superintendent tried to fireside her.
The varsity board was ready to vote on Baumann’s termination about two weeks later. On the day of that assembly, the union president intervened.
“I feel most of you may attest that in my 5 years as CTA president, I’ve hardly ever, if ever communicated about worker terminations,” Justin Katz stated in an e-mail to board members. “However this one is suspect and deserves evaluation to guard yourselves from a possible wrongful termination.”
The district opened one other investigation into Baumann with out informing her of the allegations, he stated, calling it a “fishing expedition.” He additionally stated the superintendent moved instantly to firing the trainer as a substitute of following “progressive self-discipline practices,” which normally begin with a verbal reprimand earlier than escalating to a written reprimand, unpaid suspension after which termination.
“This e-mail isn’t some type of protection of the worker on my behalf as a result of as I’ve acknowledged, I solely know a lot concerning the state of affairs,” Katz stated on the time.
“However what little I do know leads me to imagine it will behoove the board to be higher secure than sorry, provided that there are a variety of suspect actions that led to this termination request,” he continued.
Burke then reversed his determination earlier than the varsity board might vote.
Faculty district says Baumann repeatedly warned earlier than firing
After the brand new allegations arose at Canal Level Elementary this yr, attorneys for the varsity district have labored to justify Baumann’s termination.
In a submitting with the Division of Administrative Hearings, they stated Baumann obtained loads of warning up to now, together with the 10-day unpaid suspension for her gun feedback in 2014. She additionally obtained not less than two written reprimands in 2020 for insubordination and failure to finish job duties.
And in 2021, Principal Derrick Hibler held two conferences with Baumann, as soon as after she “allegedly threatened to bodily hurt a pupil,” and once more for “talking loudly within the afternoons and being confrontational with college students,” based on the varsity district.
Baumann will now have an opportunity to current proof and struggle her termination on the two-day listening to in early 2023.
Giuseppe Sabella is an schooling reporter at The Palm Seashore Submit, a part of the USA TODAY Florida Community. You may attain him at gsabella@pbpost.com. Assist assist our journalism and subscribe right this moment.
