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La Cañada School Board Votes to Get Rid of Teacher Who Called Student 'Jew Boy'
Photo by doviende via the LAist Featured Photos pool
The La Cañada high school math teacher accused of calling one her students "Jew boy", making fun of another student's speech impediment and giving girls an especially hard time in math class is on her way to being canned (or at the very least, forced to resign).
Last night the La Cañada Unified school board voted unanimously to begin the "dismissal process" for the math teacher Gabrielle Leko, which could mean that she will stick around until the end of the year, according to the La Cañada Valley Sun. The action the board took that night is effective February 27, but the board president said a settlement could happen before then.
The board has held four closed-door meetings about Leko, ever since a board member filed a formal complaint against her for using an ethnic slur to refer to a student. This fall the board voted to let Leko keep her job for the time being and sent her to sensitivity training. The district placed a substitute teacher in Leko’s classroom so another adult was present.
The board met again this December and gave students the option to opt out of her class, and students voted against Leko with their feet: 15 students in her pre-calculus class and two in her AP Calculus class chose to leave, La Cañada Valley Sun reported.
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