Time to close the story on kindergarten teacher Wendy Portillo and we're not too pleased with the outcome.
As this chart shows, a Florida administrative judge has upheld a St. Lucie County School Board ruling, suspending kindergarten teacher Wendy Portillo for one year and removing her tenured status. Translation? She is not fired. Portillo can have her job back in one year, except that she'll be on probationary status.
The ruling came almost one year after Portillo admitted that she organized her kindergarteners to vote out five-year-old classmate Alex Barton from the class while he was off at the principal's office. At the time, Alex was in the process of being diagnosed with autism. The judge agreed with the school district's assertion that Portillo used an inappropriate method of discipline and exposed students to "unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement." Case closed. But we would have liked to ask either the judge or the school board if they would mind having their child or grandchild assigned to Ms. Portillo upon her return.