Obama Effigy Hung at Failing RI High School Where All Teachers Have Been Fired

(March 18) -- Protesting the imminent firing of all 74 of the teachers at a failing Rhode Island high school, an instructor hung a doll of President Barack Obama from its feet in his classroom.

The effigy, which was discovered Monday, was accompanied by a sign reading "Fire Central Falls teachers."

Central Falls school officials as well as the teachers union have denounced the symbolic gesture. The union said the teacher, whose name was not released, said he planned to use the figure as part of the day's lessons, although it wasn't clear how.

Gretchen Ertl, AP

The superintendent announced last month that all teachers at Central Falls High School in Central Falls, R.I., would be fired at the end of the school year. In protest of the decision, one of the teachers hung an effigy of President Barack Obama in his classroom. The doll was found on Monday.

"Simply put, the teacher's actions were wrong and cannot be condoned under any circumstances," said a statement from the Central Falls Teachers Union.

"The matter was investigated by the district, reported to the appropriate authorities, and the proper disciplinary actions have been taken," said a statement from the school superintendent's office. It did not go into further detail.

After a bitter dispute between the union and the Central Falls school board concerning teacher pay and expanded duties, the board voted in February to fire all of the high school's teachers, along with 19 administrators and its principal.

The action was described by Superintendent Frances Gallo as a way to help rehabilitate a high school that has consistently ranked among Rhode Island's worst. The school board could still rehire up to 50 percent of the teachers it is initially letting go.

An advocate of teacher merit pay and enacting tougher standards of accountability for schools and teachers, Obama had cited the firings as a drastic but necessary measure to turn around the failing school.

"If a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn't show signs of improvement, then there's got to be a sense of accountability," Obama said March 1 at a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "And that's what happened in Rhode Island last week at a chronically troubled school, when just 7 percent of 11th-graders passed state math tests -- 7 percent. When a school board wasn't able to deliver change by any other means, they voted to lay off the faculty and the staff."