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Teacher's bizarre behavior comes to light

The Pine Grove Elementary teacher mooned her colleagues at a staff meeting before she was fired, records show. They also reported she yelled at her students.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published February 1, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - Susan Bartlett's fellow teachers at Pine Grove Elementary School tolerated her behavior for months, even as it grew more bizarre.

A kitchen manager said Bartlett, 34, dropped a joint and reeked of marijuana smoke when she walked in on her at the school one morning in May 2004, according to Bartlett's personnel file. But the employee, Debra McDow, didn't report the incident until October because she said she feared getting in trouble.

Another colleague remembered Bartlett yelling, and wrote that she was "out of control not only at her students but at other staff members." Still other school employees wrote to district officials that Bartlett frequently burped loudly to disrupt meetings.

But in September, Bartlett's colleagues decided she finally crossed the line.

According to district records, she mooned her colleagues at a staff meeting and later refused to take a drug test, prompting officials to terminate her in November.

Although district officials fired Bartlett, there is no record they reported the account of her suspected drug use to law enforcement authorities. District spokesman Roy Gordon said there would have been insufficient evidence for the authorities to investigate the matter since so much time had elapsed.

"We always investigate any type of report made to us," said Hernando Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Donna Black. "Whether we could have proven it - that's another matter."

After she was fired, Bartlett contested the penalty. But in January, her attorney withdrew a request for a formal hearing before the state Division of Administrative Hearings. When reached by the Times on Monday afternoon, Bartlett declined comment.

The mooning followed a pattern of unusual behavior, including many incidents that went undisciplined, records show. In October, McDow wrote to district officials that Bartlett told her son and other children at Pine Grove that she was "(their) worst nightmare."

McDow wrote that her son said Bartlett was "yelling at the kids all the time" and saying words like "butt" and "stupid" to the class of elementary children she taught.

Hernando school officials hired Bartlett as a first-grade teacher in 1998. When she applied for a job, she brought along solid references and experience as a Head Start teacher and teaching assistant in North Carolina.

Since her hiring, Bartlett was reappointed to her job every year without much incident. In May 2003, she was reprimanded for making "unprofessional comments" and asked to "seek assistance," according to a report in her personnel file.

Even after getting assistance, Bartlett's unusual behavior continued. She earned a reputation among fellow teachers for yelling at them and engaging in crude behavior, in addition to burping loudly, at staff meetings. The head custodian told other staffers he had seen Bartlett "do inappropriate things and some of them could really get her in trouble."

But like McDow, the other employees didn't report Bartlett because they "didn't want anyone to get in to trouble," according to a report filed in October by Pine Grove principal Dave Dannemiller.

The mooning incident, though, brought Bartlett's troubled history into the spotlight.

According to district files, Bartlett had launched into criticism of another colleague's teaching skills at a meeting on Sept. 29, 2004. As part of the meeting, a teacher pointed a stick at her colleagues to solicit their comments. When the teacher pointed at Bartlett, she turned around and "mooned" the group, according to Dannemiller and written accounts from several people at the meeting.

In October, Bartlett told district officials that she had not intended to moon the team, but instead had just "pulled at her pants," according to a report.

But those present at the staff meeting gave a substantially different account of the incident. One person wrote that Bartlett "exposed her bottom" while another wrote that she "pulled her pants down and showed her entire bottom to the whole group of teachers in the room."

Prompted by complaints and the testimony of other employees who came forward, district officials demanded that Bartlett take a drug test last fall. When Bartlett refused, saying there was a "lack of just cause," according to a district report, she was terminated at the Nov 2. School Board meeting.

Initially, Bartlett protested. But on Jan. 21, the state closed the case after her attorney withdrew a request for a hearing before the Division of Administrative Hearings.

--Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 352 848-1431.

[Last modified February 1, 2005, 00:54:18]