A straight teacher at Florida’s Deerfield Beach High School is battling her school district over its handling of an accusation she helped turn a young girl lesbian.
Hibbs has filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the district as well as the school’s principal and the assistant principal.
Juliet Hibbs, 47, was investigated last year for misconduct when the student’s parents complained to the school principal that she should have notified them of their daughter’s orientation and may have even contributed to her homosexuality.
Hibbs told the Sun-Sentinel she was “shocked” not only by the charges but by the principal’s decision to let the district investigate the matter.
The district cleared her and took no action in the complaint.
According to the district’s investigative report the trouble began last year while the unnamed student, 18, was in Hibbs’ class.
After her stepfather discovered she was a lesbian, he began posting a tirade of incendiary messages on her Twitter feed.
“I reported cyber bullying from stepfather to his stepdaughter on Twitter about her sexual orientation,” Hibbs said. “I reported properly and I was charged with professional misconduct for reporting the abuse. This was a tactic by my bullying principal. I was outspoken about student safety, rules application equity and issues with administration.”
Hibbs recalled the online exchange.
“As each message came, she got smaller…I watched her get destroyed,” Hibbs said.
After she reported the incident as child abuse and cyber-bullying, the student never returned to her parent’s home.
Parents told investigators they were angry with Hibbs for not notifying them of their daughter’s sexual orientation and accused her of possibly contributing to the girl’s homosexuality.
This isn’t the first time the child’s stepfather has made waves at the school. He became the target of accusations in June when teachers complained to the Broward County school board that he had treated faculty members unfairly.
The recent ordeal has made Hibbs more determined, writing in a Nov. 2 Facebook post that she will run for a school board seat in 2014. Her unique perspectives of being a Broward student, parent and teacher, she adds, qualifies her to know what’s best for the district.
“I will be running on the platform of Hibbs for Change,” she writes. “I am going to begin with YouTube videos exposing the corruption within Broward School. They now have created a life-long educational advocate.”
