Legal Outrage of the Day

You can fire a state University human resources VP for opposing gay marriage, but not a special-ed teacher after killing her own child:

Back in June of 2004, Jessica Elgie, a Special Education teacher in Buffalo, was sentenced in State Supreme Court for the crime of Endangering The Welfare Of A Child.

The child in question was her own five year old adopted son, Casey.

While at home one day, Elgie's little boy swallowed laundry detergent and then, despite her son becoming violently ill, Elgie waited hours before taking him to a hospital where he died.

Once Elgie was sentenced, the Buffalo School System suspended her -- with pay -- as is required by law, and then began the process of trying to fire her.

It took more than 14 months, and cost taxpayers close to $200,000 in costs before an arbitrator ruled that the School District had the right to fire Elgie.

Elgie's case is not an isolated one.

Through a Freedom Of Information request, 2 On Your Side has learned that over the last six years, Buffalo taxpayers have paid millions of dollars to teachers not to teach.

Twelve different teachers have collected $2.25 million in salary while under suspension and waiting for disciplinary hearings during that time.

And that amount doesn't include the costs for substitutes and the hearings themselves.

The average wait for those hearings: three years.

In an entirely unrelated development, I remind you that the largest teachers union, the National Education Association, is the seventh largest political donor over the past two decades--91 percent of the contributions of which went to Democrats.

(via Warner Todd Huston at Right Wing News)