Teacher Who Wrote Letter to Sun Terminated

The Reidland High School teacher who asked a student to write a controversial letter to the editor of the Paducah Sun has been terminated.
 
The Sun reports that Shawnda Pacheco, a Spanish teacher with more than a decade of teaching experience in McCracken County, was fired on Friday. Pacheco said that McCracken County Schools Superintendent Nancy Waldrop told her that her firing was due to the letter Pacheco and a student wrote and sent to The Paducah Sun in December.
 
Molly Goodman, the county schools director of public relations, told the Sun that neither Waldrop nor she would comment on the matter.  Pacheco worked at Reidland High School, her alma mater, for three years. Prior to that, she taught Spanish at Heath for eight years.
 
In mid-December, she and a student wrote a letter to the Sun's editor voicing concern over safety at the school and the administration’s failure to act. The letter prompted school and county law enforcement to close Reidland High School on Dec. 18 while an investigation could be conducted, since the Sun would not divulge the writer's name. Eventually, the McCracken County Sheriff's Department was allowed to meet with those involved, and it was determined that this threat had already been investigated.
 
Pacheco said Waldrop interviewed her after the incident. She said Waldrop was concerned that Pacheco did not use the proper chain of command.  Pacheco said she had penned letters to the Sun's editor before, and she had witnessed teachers notify administrators of safety concerns and get blown off.
 
On Friday, Waldrop called Pacheco into a meeting where she was given a packet of paper and taped interviews with her co-workers. She said she was told she was being fired because to her involvement in writing the letter.  Waldrop told her she had orchestrated the bullying of a student because the letter named the student who had “brought weapons twice” to school. Pacheco was also told she was fired for insubordination.
 
McCracken County school board member Jerry Shemwell said that the termination was brought to the board's attention, but that the board never knew the teacher’s name. Board member Jeff Parker told the Sun that the board does not make personnel decisions.
 
Pacheco said she fears that her four children, who all attend Reidland schools, may face retaliation, and she may pull them out of classes. She is currently looking for a job. Meanwhile, her teaching certificate is under review by the state Education Professional Standards Board.