Sorry to put a damper on your weekend, but ...
Remember Rafael Martin, the special education teacher who ran 50 miles last fall and received high praise for raising $12,000 in school supplies? (That’s the same teacher who, according to My Fox Tampa Bay, had attempted the 50-mile run last May and was hospitalized toward the end for dehydration.) Well, My Fox now reports that Martin has been let go from his teaching job at Tenoroc High School in Lakeland, Fla.
The station says that Martin’s teacher contract will not be renewed, despite the fact that he received “mostly satisfactory marks on his evaluation.”
My Fox also notes that Martin’s firing is not a budget issue but rather a personnel matter, and that the district will not comment except to say that “a principal can choose not to renew a contract during a teacher’s first three years at a school.” Martin said he was not given a reason as to why he was let go.
“This is the exact opposite of what I thought would happen,” Martin told My Fox. But, he added, “I don’t regret doing it. I’d do it all over again because it was the right thing to do.”