Okaloosa's School Board retains the teacher after the boy left school and was hit by an SUV.
By Associated Press
Published November 7, 2003
FORT WALTON BEACH - The teacher of a kindergartener who was killed in traffic after sneaking out of school will keep her job, the Okaloosa County School Board decided Thursday.
The board voted 3-2 against a recommendation from superintendent Don Gaetz to fire Brenda Quinones, 32, who addressed the panel before the vote.
"I am here today to fight for and keep my job," said Quinones, who started work here in August with a master's degree and a record of excellence in a previous position in Nebraska, where she taught from 1999 to 2003. "I am a good teacher."
Gaetz accepted the board's decision. "We will welcome her back to the classroom and fully reinstate her," he said.
Quinones had sent 5-year-old Corey Jackson to another classroom at Northwood Elementary School in Crestview on Oct. 28 and called the other teacher to tell her Corey was coming. She said she watched him through a window until he reached the door of the other class, but then was distracted by a pupil's question. Looking again, she didn't see Corey and assumed he had entered the room.
Instead, Corey had taken another child's bicycle and ridden away from school. About 40 minutes later, about the time school officials realized he was missing and began a search, the boy was run over by a sport-utility vehicle on a nearby highway.
"Mrs. Quinones should not have total blame for this tragedy," said School Board chairwoman Cindy Frakes. "It could have happened to any teacher at any time in the blink of an eye."
