The school board in Catoosa, Okla. fired Wells Middle School teacher Heather Cagle on Wednesday because she stuffed 11 students into her Honda Accord and drove them to a nearby Walmart to buy some snacks.
Cagle managed this impressive feat back on Tuesday, Oct. 21, reports the Tulsa World.
The students ranged in age from 12 to 15.
Two of the students sat in the front passenger seat. Seven students sat in the backseat. Two 12-year-old girls rode in the trunk.
The distance from Wells Middle School to the Walmart Supercenter in the Tulsa suburb of Catoosa is 295 feet and includes no major roads, according to Google Maps. Most of the actual drive occurs in parking lots.
The 4-1 vote against Cagle was preceded by a six-hour due-process hearing.
The 10-year veteran math and yearbook teacher said she made the poor decision to take 11 kids to a Walmart in a single car because she had wanted to do “something sweet” for her young yearbook staff.
“Student safety and well-being are of paramount importance to the administration, and the administration respects and supports the board’s decision,” local school district superintendent Rick Kibbe said, according to the World. “Catoosa Public Schools has and will continue to be a district which provides all students with a safe and appropriate learning environment.”
School district attorney Karen Long noted that Cagle violated district policy by failing to obtain signatures from parents for the short trip.
“No parent or grandparent or guardian should ever expect that any teacher, particularly not an experienced teacher, will take their children off campus in the trunk of a personal vehicle,” Long said.
Cagle’s attorney, Richard O’Carroll, disagreed with the school board’s decision.
“There wasn’t any danger and it was a farce,” he told Tulsa Fox affiliate KOKI-TV. “All you got to do is cry a lawsuit or something these days.”
“It wasn’t the best judgment,” O’Carroll added. “She went 400 yards on an empty road through a parking lot. No one was hurt.”
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