By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

NEW YORK CITY – Even Jesus couldn’t save New York City teacher Mona Lisa Tello from the long arm of the law.

The bilingual science teacher donned a “giant Jesus blanket” in Manhattan Criminal Court this week, where a judge sentenced her to 10 days of community service for forging a jury duty letter to get out of work. The teacher was busted because the letter was riddled with misspellings, the New York Post reports.

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“In it, Tello wrote ‘Manger’ instead of Manager, ‘trail’ instead of trial, and ‘sited’ instead of cited.  Tello also botched the telephone, fax numbers and bar code on the letter, according to the criminal complaint against her,” the Post reports.

“I’m innocent! I’m innocent!” the Manhattan school teacher told the Post, despite pleading guilty to disorderly conduct.

The teacher repaid the city $3,374 in salary for a total of 15 days she lied about attending jury duty in 2010 and 2011. She also resigned from her $58,335 per year teaching position, although her attorney told the newspaper “she’d like to continue teaching.”

It’s scary to imagine that such a deranged woman  – and poor speller – would be allowed to continue to shape young minds. But it happens every day in America due to overly protective union rules and state regulations that put the interests of school employees above student needs.

We’re not sure what’s more depressing , the fact that Tello represents the quality of instruction in the city’s public education system, or that this woman, who is in daily contact with young students, believes it’s appropriate to play hooky and lie about it.

This is clearly not the type of person most parents would want teaching their children. But it is the type of teacher public school officials are forced to accept due to illogical union protections. America must shift to an evaluation and compensation system that rewards quality teachers and shows people like Tello the door.

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The saddest part is that Tello very likely will land another position in a different school, probably with a little help from her union rep.