Teacher Resigns After Being Put on Leave

Click here to hear the WBUR Radio Boston broadcast with Dr. Sarah Jordan.  

Seventh grade reading teacher Dr. Sarah Jordan will be leaving the . In an interview with Anthony Brooks on WBUR Radio Boston this afternoon, Jordan said she “became controversial” and did not want to be a distracting figure in the classroom.

“I’m walking away from something I love. I’m a teacher,” she said in the broadcast, after noting that this was a difficult time for her.

The teacher was placed on administrative leave from Gibbons Middle School on June 13 after administrators received a parent report that she may have shown an inappropriate video in her classroom. The video in question was Superman from Eminem.

“The video was shown as part of a media analysis unit of study,” said Superintendent Marianne O’Connor. “Her intent was to discuss how women are treated in videos and in the media. She certainly didn’t have the intent of showing anything inappropriate.”

Initially, administrators were unclear which version of the video had been presented in the classroom. There are reportedly three versions, one of which shows nudity.

Jordan told Brooks that three different parents complained about the showing of music videos, including a Lady Gaga video, but it was a parent who went to theabout the Eminem video that set off a chain events that ended in her resignation. She said that the parent did not follow expected protocol in bypassing her and the school administration, and that ultimately led to unexpected media interest.

. “After reviewing the video and speaking further with the parent who initially reported the incident, it was determined that the students in the class had actually been shown an edited version of the video which blurred out anything that would have been considered obscene,” Gordon reported.

Jordan said she did not initially want to include the Eminem video in her lesson plan, but when she asked her students what they were watching, “the kids were watching” it.

A caller to the radio show suggested Jordan was setting a bad example by quitting her job. “I don’t think quitting should have been a lesson,” the caller said.

Jordan responded by saying she was, among other things, concerned for the student whose father went to the police and that played into her decision. She said she consulted members of the school administration and “we did feel it was a good time for me to move on.”

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