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Schools have right to fire suicidal teacher

Editor's note: All of today's letters are in response to the Sept. 10 story Teacher's suicide attempt prompts morality debate.

Morality is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as being in accord with standards of right or good conduct. It is the responsibility of school officials to protect students and to set a good example, which absolutely involves good and moral judgment.

A suicide attempt at school in the presence of students is not what I would consider an act of good conduct.

Depression and mental illness is an unfortunate reality, but when it comes to making decisions that put students at risk, it is time to take responsibility for inappropriate behavior. According to several sources, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24. A student's exposure to a suicide attempt is not something that should be taken lightly. The students' safety and protection is the superintendent's primary concern, with the teacher's mental stability secondary - as it should be.

So do I support superintendent Fiorentino's decision to fire a teacher who attempted suicide on school campus, in the presence of students? Absolutely!

Patricia Rivers, Zephyrhills

Turn negative situation positive

I do not support the actions the teacher took, nor do I fully agree with the stance that superintendent Heather Fiorentino took on the issue. In light of the sensitive issue that this is, I would think Ms. Fiorentino could use this unfortunate situation as a way to show effective leadership for her students and the teacher affected.

My suggestion would be to offer the teacher administrative leave (without pay) and then once the teacher comes through this troubled time of her life then she should be reinstated and able to use the struggle and defeat of the situation as a bridge to help students that might be affected by this in the future.

This would be the best way to turn a negative situation to a positive one.

Henry Wilson, New Port Richey

Keep suicide attempt quiet

When someone opens the newspaper in the morning, they do not expect to find an article about a suicide attempt on the front page of the Pasco Times. Such was my astonishment when seeing the article titled, "Teacher's suicide attempt prompts morality debate."

I have been a student of Patti Withers for two years, and am currently a senior at Pasco High School. I was enraged by the fact that such an article was even published in the newspaper. I think this article is an invasion of privacy! This teacher's whole life is now in question by everyone who reads this newspaper.

We will have the parents of past students complaining about whether she was competent to teach their children. Firsthand, I saw her passion for the French language, I saw her go above and beyond to try to get this language and culture through to us. There is no question about how good of a teacher she was.

I also read the comment from superintendent Heather Fiorentino about how she worries about the welfare of the students present at the suicide attempt. It was after 3 p.m. and the only people who could have seen her do the act were outside. The only thing they could have thought they saw was her take a couple of pills for her "headache." They had no idea it was a suicide attempt until now. You can worry about their welfare now that this article is in their face.

Crystal Seiwell, Dade City

Students getting wrong message

Pasco County school superintendent Heather Fiorentino is concerned about the message Patti Withers might have conveyed to students in her May suicide attempt. I am concerned about the example Ms. Fiorentino is setting for students.

One of the goals of public education is to teach students how to gather reliable information from which to make decisions. The comment that suicide is an "immoral act" clearly indicates that Ms. Fiorentino is functioning without first having educated herself.

Suicide is the most severe symptom of depression - a clinical illness that as School Board member Jean Weightman stated signifies that the sufferer is "not thinking clearly." Had the teacher been thinking clearly she would not have made the suicide attempt, much less on school property. Depression is an illness just like any other clinical illness. Depression or any other mental illness has nothing to do with morality. Claiming that the symptoms of Ms. Withers' illness are immoral is tantamount to accusing a person of vomiting because of influenza or dying because of cancer being immoral.

Ms. Fiorentino is further using the misinformation from which she is functioning to misapply information from the National Institute of Mental Health and Harvard Medical School, as well as the Florida State Board of Education administrative rules. That she does not know of or might have dismissed the study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that contradicts the information she presented to school board members indicates Ms. Fiorentino's comments are a knee jerk reaction. It also demonstrates for students how to manipulate information to support a specific outcome, as opposed to getting all the facts and then making a rational decision.

What Ms. Fiorentino also overlooks is that Ms. Withers clearly made a cry for help. Ms. Fiorentino's response to Ms. Withers' desperation is not to help, but to punish. What kind of example does this set for students? I don't see that the example of responding without compassion benefits "impressionable high school students." Furthermore, it demeans teachers and other school staff by indicating that their health and safety is less important than that of students. If the health and safety of school staff were important, then Ms. Fiorentino would be suggesting a leave of absence for Ms. Withers so that she might get the medical care she needs in order to recover and return to her job.

If the Pasco County School Board decides to take Ms. Fiorentino's recommendation and fire Ms. Withers, what message does this give to students who might also be suffering from depression and considering suicide? How many students that need help might instead withdraw further into depression and actually succeed at suicide? What kind of legal liability might this create for Pasco County Schools?

Barbara Gugliotti, Brooksville

Suicide attempt 'a cry for help'

It was a gesture, not an attempt:

"Suicide gesture denotes a person undertaking an unusual, but not fatal, behavior as a cry for help or to get attention. " http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic3004.htm

Had the pills been deadly, cyanide for example, she would be dead. Had there been no witnesses to intervene, the pills might have been deadly. The clear choice of having witnesses says it is "a cry for help."

I am not an administrator, so I have no understanding of administrative procedures to address her gesture, where it occurred, and who witnessed it. I tend to lean toward compassion and the lessons it teaches.

Harold A. Maio, Fort Myers Former consulting editor Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal Boston University

[Last modified September 13, 2006, 08:18:30]