A 63-year-old Arlington math teacher who faced termination after she made an ethnically insensitive comment to a student should be allowed to return to teaching, though not at her campus, an independent hearing examiner has recommended.
Independent Hearing Examiner Jess Rickman III, in a 23-page opinion, issued late Wednesday said the district failed to provide sufficient grounds to terminate Shirley Bunn, who had taught at Barnett Junior High School since 1999. Bunn has been on paid leave since Sept. 30, the day of the incident.Bunn told a student to "Go back to Mexico" after he repeatedly interrupted class by saying "I'm Mexican," indicating he wanted a Spanish-language version of a form being distributed to students in the classroom, according to the opinion.The school board still could reject the recommendation. Bunn's attorneys said they believe that is unlikely but said that if the board doesn't reinstate Bunn, they would appeal to the state commissioner of education.District spokeswoman Amy Casas declined to comment on the case but said it would be presented to the school board "at an upcoming meeting."Rickman noted Bunn's "superlative" performance appraisals and said her conduct and remarks "do not rise to [a] level of good cause" to terminate her.In an interview Thursday, Bunn said she was "thrilled and relieved" by the examiner's opinion. She also said she regretted her remark to the student the moment she made it."It was almost instantaneous. I thought, 'God, I don't believe that came out of my mouth,'" she said. "It was a very, very hard week, the end of six weeks. It was late in the day. It was a Friday. We were on the third day of the first curriculum assessment and I knew it wasn't going well. It was just an extremely bad day."She also said she has mixed feelings, "because I really, really want to go back to Barnett and help the kids."Rickman wrote that Bunn's return to Barnett "would not be productive in light of her principal's feelings and suspicion's toward her."Robert Cadwallader, 817-390-7641Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
