Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Burlingame backs off comments about teachers who testified at my hearing (sort of)

Blogger and frequent Joplin Globe columnist Anson Burlingame backed off today from derogatory statements he made on his blog Monday about the three teachers who testified for me at my May 23, 2013, termination hearing.

In a response to a comment on his blog, Burlingame referred to teachers who comment anonymously on the Turner Report as "whiners" and said the teachers who testified on my behalf, Mike Wallace, Kim Frencken, and Sheri Cornett, were "sore excuses for good teachers, the ones I saw and heard, to be sure."

His remarks were condemned in comments on his blog and today, Burlingame revised his opinion:

Let me be clear as to why I thought the teachers (actually one teacher and a cafeteria worker as I recall) that provided character witness testimony on behalf of Turner presented their views wrongly. Both were totally off the point of the hearing, presented themselves very poorly in both the manner in which they dressed, groomed and acted, as well as what they said at the hearing. No, not ALL teachers testifying met that criteria, but two of them stood out as young (in one case), very opininated and totally off point as to whether Turner should have published the book and the manner in which he communicated with students on that book. THAT is why he was fired, ultimately, at least in my view and there was strong justification for such action, again in my view.
And Carol Stark provides this man with a regular guest column?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now he's the arbiter of who's properly dressed and how they should dress? Who the hell died and left him in charge?




Kathy G SGF

Anonymous said...

In addition to being able to tell whether someone is good or bad by having a "sit-down" with them and looking them in the eyes, Anson is also able to determine a person's character and value by the way they dress.

What a guy!

Anonymous said...

Anson is a legend -in his own mind.

Anonymous said...

They were "very opinionated?" That's Anson's issue?
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!