ANN ARBOR, Mich. – An Ann Arbor teacher accused of seating students by race, calling them names and throwing school supplies is refusing a district request for a psychological evaluation and is fighting to keep her job.

Huron High School math teacher Dianne Down was placed on paid administrative leave in December after parents forwarded comments posted about her on the popular website RateMyTeacher.com, Mlive.com reports.

“Ms. Down is honestly just a horrible teacher. She can not teach the material that we are required to learn, and then gets mad when we ask her questions,” according to one post on the website. “She also calls her students whores, and throws pencils at they if they have fallen asleep during her extremely boring lectures.

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“She needs to either retire or be fired, no student should be put through the misery of being in her ‘classroom.’”

One of Down’s students complained to her parents that the teacher mistreated students, and the parent discovered numerous comments on RateMyTeacher.com about Down’s behavior and forwarded a link to school officials in December. District officials launched an investigation into the online allegations, then placed Down on paid administrative leave the same month.

According to the parent’s email, which was obtained by Mlive through a public information request:

I was distressed to find that my daughter’s concerns were backed up by uniformly damning reviews posted by Huron students describing verbal abuse (i.e. calling students ‘whores’), emotional abuse (denigrating comments, racist comments), and even physical abuse (throwing a pencil at a dozing student) during instruction time.

I think it would be well worth the time for each of you to review the 40 odd comments regarding Ms. Down.

I should remind you that doctors and educators are both mandatory reporters of child abuse, and if there is any reasonable suspicion of abuse it is mandatory that this be referred to promptly to child protective services. I will defer to your prompt investigation of this matter before making a decision on whether I am required to file a report on my daughter’s behalf.

I have equally grave concerns about this teacher’s competence, and I know that I am in good company. I do not want my daughter to return to that classroom, and I am requesting that her enrollment in that class be erased from her transcript or marked as withdrawn. Please let me know in the next few days what action has been taken to investigate these problems.

Ann Arbor officials requested that Down submit to a psychological exam to determine if she’s fit for duty, but Down challenged the request on the grounds that the exam is a violation of her rights against unreasonable search and seizure, Mlive reports.

The teacher filed a lawsuit in federal court in January under a pseudonym to protect her identity but later revealed her name. She has also filed a restraining order seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the district from forcing her to take the mental exam.

A judge ruled in July, however, that the psychological exam is not an unreasonable search and an injunction would “harm the public’s interest in ensuring that public school teachers are fit for duty in their safety-sensitive positions so as to provide public school students with a safe, positive, and productive educational environment,” according to the ruling cited by Mlive.

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Judge Nancy Edwards also wrote that Down “was unable to fully acknowledge her long history of difficulties and problematic interactions with students and parents about her teaching performance and classroom management skills.”

According to Down’s personnel file, she received satisfactory evaluations during her first four years in the district, but school officials started receiving complaints once she received tenure.

“In October 2004, during Down’s fifth year with the district, Huron administrators formally reprimanded her for teasing a student …” Mlive reports. “Down had teased a student about being an ‘animal,’ called him animal names – including ‘chipmunk’ – and admitted to saying ‘shut up, chipmunk’ to the student …”

Four years later, nine students requested a transfer from her class, and 22 lodged complaints against her. In the spring of 2010, Down was warned against seating students by race. In 2012, school administrators advised her to improve her behavior because of continued student transfers and inappropriate behavior with students, according to the news site.

Ironically, under the district’s new teacher evaluation system, Down was rated as effective in 2013, though parent complaints about online comments regarding Down in the fall resulted in her removal from the classroom that winter.

Down appealed the ruling to the federal court of appeals in August.

Her attorney contends the big issue is whether anonymous online comments are enough evidence for school officials to require a mental evaluation. Down obviously believes they’re not, despite the mountain of other evidence of bad behavior in her employment file.

Regardless, it seems Down is set on fighting for her job until the bitter end, and the odds of her prevailing or receiving some sort of settlement are pretty good.

Because of the state’s tenure laws – which make terminating a tenured teacher very difficult and expensive – Ann Arbor Public Schools has only prevailed in firing two tenured teachers in the last decade.