A Newton South teacher who was once a semifinalist for a statewide teacher of the year award was placed on administrative leave this month after a report was made to school officials that he showed a student a photo of a gun in class, the Boston Globe reports.
“While we are unable to share more details of this specific situation, we can tell you that [Deven] Antani will not return to South next year and no longer works for the Newton Public Schools,” Newton Public Schools spokeswoman Julie McDonough said in an e-mail.
This article, unfortunately, lacks enough information for appropriate discussion. The city owes the public more information on this.
While the article may lack the necessary details, we can speculate, and if the teacher showed the student a picture of a gun that he recently purchased, or is a part of a collection he owns it would be inappropriate, but IMHO wouldn’t warrant his removal.
How on earth would any picture of a firearm be inappropriate? If a student has an interest in guns a teach can’t share an interest with them? Newton high schools used to have shooting teams. Residents of Newton lawfully own and carry firearms. Gun ownership is a constitutionally protected right. How is it any more “inappropriate” than discussing any other non-academic topic with a student?
There is more detail in other news reports: https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/Newton-Teacher-Loses-Job-Following-Complaints-From-Students-511763551.html
@Mike and@Norman – from the NBC report it looks like the picture of the gun was shown in a threatening manner. Shame on the Globe for not doing an adequate job of reporting. It seems like the students had been worried about this teacher’s behavior and when the teacher found out they had said something he then showed them the picture of his gun. Not appropriate at all.
From what I’ve heard, it sounds like this teacher was a nightmarish teacher all year. I feel bad for his students!
@Meredith – let’s not rush to believe the claims of a wealthy kid who may not have been getting his way, over someone who was a finalist for teacher of the year. Particularly when we have not heard from the teacher
I don’t understand what the net worth of a student has to do with anything (or how Dan knows that anyway).
Comment, who aren’t), and I am not going to automatically assume that someone isn’t honest based on their family’s income.
Oops – my phone ate my last comment. Dan, I didn’t say whether or not the student was telling the truth but was answering the people who said there was no reason showing a picture of a gun should be problematic. If it was shown in a threatening way it’s definitely problematic.
In addition, you can’t assume that all Newton students are affluent. My family certainly isn’t. And even if the student is, I cannot imagine assuming that someone’s a liar just because their family has money. As with anything else, there are truthful students and lying students in all financial brackets.
Valid point Meredith – poor assumption on my part to assume he’s wealthy just because he lives in Newton. I revise my comment to say “believe the claims of a kid…..”
Hopefully we hear more from the teacher’s side as the attributed quotes seem very out of character for a teacher of the year finalist (meaning a lot of diligence is done before nominating someone for that award)
I am very concerned about this and eager to get to the bottom of what happened and why this teacher was let go. According to my child – a current student at South – he was the best English teacher there. She also told me that some kids reached out to him and got a totally different side of the story – according to her, the teacher may have caught the student doing something inappropriate and informed him that there may be consequences, and the next thing we know, the teacher is getting fired. Please, we need to know what exactly happened. Why would a teacher be suddenly fired – this makes no sense.
Showing the photographs was a threat. This guy reminds me of a narcissistic teacher I had in school. I bet kids love his charisma, but does he really have their best interest at heart? Or does he enjoy being adored? I
“Why would a teacher be suddenly fired – this makes no sense”
If the claim as reported was properly investigated and corroborated, he should have been fired. But I could easily see the “because guns” doctrine coming in to effect here.
I had a teacher at NNHS a decade ago confide in me he wouldn’t touch politics due to fear of retribution against him and his career. I can’t imagine it’s any better today with call-out culture in full effect.
If the claim as reported was properly investigated and corroborated, he should have been fired. But I could easily see the “because guns” doctrine coming in to effect here.
Mike, the info that is circulating by the kids at school leads me to believe that it was a totally normal convo where the student actually lead it and got the teacher to show him the photo for the explicit reason of getting the teacher in trouble.
I also hate the fact that nothing that may be remotely controversial can be discussed nowadays, even in a simple conversation between a student and a teacher. What kind of education is that?
I know absolutely nothing about this situation, but please keep in mind the following:
All personnel decisions are completely confidential – now and forever. Period – end of story. NPS has no right to provide any information about any employee to the public.
The NPS has a (beyond) thorough evaluation system that’s particularly rigorous for teachers in their first three years in the profession. It involves goal setting, planned and unplanned observations, follow-up discussions, formative and summative evaluations. The state requires this level of rigor, and it’s not an easy process to navigate. Here is the link to the DESE Teacher Evaluation webpage: http://www.doe.mass.edu/edeval/
Except in the case of documented unacceptable behavior on the part of an educator, the renewal of a contract is based on this yearlong evaluation process.