School district says 'no-zero policy' was not the reason for fired Florida teacher

By GOLDENE BROWN - SEP 26, 2018 | 1:15 PM

A Florida teacher claims she was “fired” after she refused to give students credit for work not turned in, but the school district says she was removed from the classroom for other reasons.

On her last day teaching at a Port St. Lucia Public School, Diane Tirado, 52, left a note to her students on a whiteboard. “Bye Kids. Mrs. Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50 percent for not handing anything in. Mrs. Tirado,” she wrote.

The eighth-grade teacher says the school has a “no-zero policy,” entailing that teachers are not allowed to give students anything less than a 50% on an assignment.

Tirado says she was fired when she refused to follow the policy after several students failed to turn in an assignment, according to WPTV.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Tirado said, “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.”

A specific cause for Tirado’s termination was not included in the letter she received from the principal because she was on a probationary status, according to a statement.

(Article from the site: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-newsflorida-teacher-fired-no-zero-policy-20180926-story.html. Reaserched in September 2018.

In the sentence: “Bye Kids. Mrs. Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life!” the word in bold refers to: