LAUSD Science Teacher Allegedly Placed In 'Teacher Jail' Returned To His Classroom
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A Los Angeles Unified School District science teacher returned to his classroom Friday after allegedly being removed over science fair experiments.
Greg Schiller, a teacher at Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts, was put in "teacher jail" in February after district officials reportedly confiscated two science fair projects with the word "gun" in their titles.
One of the entries was an air cannon and the other was an electromagnetic coil gun, according to reports.
The district temporarily reassigns teachers to LAUSD headquarters for a wide variety of safety concerns.
"It is the practice of the Los Angeles Unified School District to reassign an employee to a non-classroom setting when there are allegations related to student safety," LAUSD spokesman Thomas Waldman said in a statement. "We will always err on the side of protecting students. On the other hand, the District does not reassign employees on a whim."
Students and parents protested and created an online petition to reinstate Schiller, who had been unable to prepare his students for an upcoming Advanced Placement test.
"We have one week left until AP exams, and I am looking forward to working very hard before school, lunch, nutrition and after school with my students to help them prepare," he said.
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