SEFFNER, Fla. — A Hillsborough County teacher says she is calling it quits.
Bianca Goolsby says after blogging and sharing her story, she's hearing from teachers across the district who share many of her same frustrations.
She works at Jennings Middle School in Seffner. It's one of 50 high-needs schools using the achievement model to bring up school grades to a C or better for three straight years.
Goolsby says she reached out to achievement leadership after seeing kids repeatedly fight and bully each other -- feeling the students and teachers were not safe.
“I told them that I'm suffering. I told them that we have to take back our school,” she told viewers in a Facebook Live.
She says teachers were told students would not be suspended, and when students found out, their behavior was worse. She read one of her emails sent to her principal in a Facebook Live where she said, “a student was pushed out the window.”
She says later in the school year, teachers were told they could write referrals for suspensions.
“All of this time, stuff was going unnoticed, and you mean to tell me you could have been suspending this whole time? We were outraged,” she told Facebook Live viewers.
The school district did confirm to 10News that it felt like the suspensions were not working because the behavior wasn't improving, so school leaders were working on other programs to get kids back on track. They tell us that they're happy with the school's progress.
In addition to the violence, Goolsby also noted the deteriorating conditions like failing air conditioners and a thermostat showing 80 degrees.
Many schools will be getting new air conditioners over the summer, but Jennings isn't on the list. The school is on the priority list for the next five years.
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