Teacher who made students vomit wants job back

[truthpusher]

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050223/APN/502230530&cachetime=5

Last updated: February 23. 2005 12:44AM

Teacher who made students vomit wants job back

The Associated Press

A former Johnston County chemistry teacher who lost his job after leading students in an experiment in which they drank milk until they vomited has asked a judge to overturn the school board decision that cost him his job.

Jeff Ferguson and his lawyer, L. Lamar Armstrong Jr., contend that the Johnston County school board acted "in an arbitrary, capricious manner, in furtherance of personal and political agendas."

(snip)

Ferguson carried out the experiment in November 2003 with 38 students from two honors chemistry classes. He has said that it was designed to let students test the body's ability to neutralize the acids in milk. Thirteen students vomited as a result.

Ferguson says he can't get a job teaching in another county despite the high scores of his students on end-of-course tests and the need for science teachers.

"Here I sit with nine years of physical science experience, and they have kids there without a teacher," he said in an interview at his Clayton home. "I couldn't even get a job ... tutoring."

complete story:
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050223/APN/502230530&cachetime=5

[Fridays Child]

1. Class activities like that should require parental permission.

Any number of conditions can be exacerbated by drinking milk and/or by vomiting.

That said, I sense that the teacher's dismissal may have resulted from the perception that he exploited the students, somehow.

[booksenkatz]

2. What school system is going to want to take on the liability?

If I were an administrator, I wouldn't want to bear the legal responsibility for a teacher who abuses students with his experiments. Period. This idiot shouldn't be allowed near children, I don't care how many fucking degrees he has.