In 2018, Florida teacher Diane Tirado was fired for giving zeros to those who did not submit assignments. What happened to her?
The chalkboard note that Florida teacher Diane Tirado left for her students in 2018 resurfaced on social media along with a fresh debate on the ‘no-zero’ policy. “Bye Kids, Mrs Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50% for not handing anything in. Love Mrs Tirado,” the note read.The incident took place in 2018 at West Gate K-8 School in Port St Lucie. At that time, Tirado said she was fired immediately after she refused to give 50% to students who had not even completed their assignments. She was 52 at that time and had been a teacher for 17 years. “If there’s nothing to grade, how can I give somebody a 50 per cent?” Tirado said, explaining that she did not believe in the no-zero policy of the school under which no student should receive a zero and the lowest possible grade is 50 per cent.She had asked the school administration what to do with the students who don’t even submit their assignments. She was told that they also get 50%. But Tirado did not fall in line. At that time, she was a new hire and hence was not given an explanation for her termination. She could not say goodbye to her students and so left the note — which is again going viral.
School said Tirado was fired for other reasons
The school at that time said there was no such ‘no zero’ policy’ and Tirado was terminated because her performance was deemed substandard and she created a toxic culture on the school’s campus. They said they received numerous complaints from students, parents and teachers about her conduct and there was an investigation into complaints of physical abuse as well.“The reason I took on this fight was because it was ridiculous. Teaching should not be this hard. Teachers teach content, children do the assignments to the best of their ability and teachers grade that work based on a grading scale that has been around a very long time. Teachers also provide numerous attempts to get the work collected so they can give a child a grade. By nature, most teachers are loving souls who want to see students succeed. We do above and beyond actual teaching to give them the support they need. Are we perfect? NO. We make mistakes like all other human beings, but I know teachers work their butts off to help children to be the best people they can be!!!” Diane wrote at that time.
What happened to Diane Tirado?
In 2020, Florida’s Commissioner of Education, Richard Corcoran, brought an administrative case against Tirado concerning alleged violations of Florida’s professional-conduct rules. The administrative case eventually resulted in a formal reprimand. On January 20, 2022, the Florida Education Practices Commission wrote to Tirado that a teacher hearing panel had reviewed the matter and concluded that she had violated Florida’s Principles of Professional Conduct. The commission formally reprimanded her and placed the reprimand in her state certification file.In 2022, Tirado filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the school alleging that she had been fired in retaliation for speaking out against the no-zero policy. The case went on for years. The court found that administrators had received multiple complaints during Tirado’s five weeks at the school. The magistrate judge concluded that even if Tirado’s criticism of the grading policy had played some role in the termination, the district had shown it would have terminated her anyway based on the other issues. Tirado lost another case and is now out of the classroom teaching.
