School District investigating political post; Teacher temporarily reassigned
A complaint has been filed against a Lee County teacher who allegedly jumped into the fray between political factions in Cape Coral Wednesday by posting a pair of comments criticizing not only a city official but her special needs second grader.
Cape Coral City Councilmember Jessica Cosden sent an email complaint to the school district Wednesday night shortly after viewing the posts reportedly made by Jody Chilton, a fourth grade gifted teacher at Tropic Isles Elementary School where Cosden’s daughter attended kindergarten and two months of first grade before changing schools last year.
Chilton has been reassigned while the district addresses the complaint, a district spokesperson said Thursday.
“The teacher has been reassigned to the district pending an investigation,” Rob Spicker said via email in response to a Breeze query.
The posts in question were made in a Facebook thread started by former mayor Marni Sawicki to explain what Sawicki says was the motivation behind a pair of investigations concerning her actions while in office.
No wrongdoing was found.
The post includes screen shots of discussions among Cosden, a charter school board member and a former planning and zoning member with some Sawicki supporters then posting calls for Cosden’s resignation.
Following one of those posts, the person posting as “Jody Chilton” weighed in: “If she is anything like her daughter in school who cussed me out in 1st grade and physically harmed other kids until she was removed to a special school, then you might want to come armored. But you didn’t hear that from me!”
The post got one thanks for “the heads up” but also a comment that the post might not be appropriate.
“Jody Chilton Is that her autistic child? Please let’s not go there…”
Chilton responded: “Excuse me? I have no clue. So, autistic kids can cuss out someone trying to volunteer to help them find a book? Good to know. The point is, children model what they learn at home. Autism aside.”
Sawicki deleted the comments as soon as the posts were brought to her attention.
“I deleted her comments. When someone messaged me, I quickly went in and deleted all of those,” Sawicki said, adding that while she and Cosden have not seen eye to eye, children are not fair game in the political arena. She messaged Cosden to let her know that and that the posts referring to her daughter were gone.
“Kids are off limits. I have two of my own and I would never condone that on social media,” Sawicki said. “My kids are off limits, too.”
Cosden said the posts brought her to tears, that her daughter’s first grade year, the year she was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, was a bad one for them both.
“It’s upsetting to think a teacher, especially someone with a certification in gifted, would think of a student in such a negative way,” she said in a telephone interview. “We send our children to school expecting they will be loved and accepted, especially special needs students who need the most love and patience. That’s what hurt me the most, that she was thinking of her that way, where I sent her every day. Her current teacher deserves a medal.”
The child’s father, Cosden’s ex-husband, expressed similar distress.
“It’s just unfortunate that children who deal with struggles like this are seen in this way,” Dave Montrose said. “And it’s real unfortunate to see people, whether they are teachers or not, use children for their political beliefs. No parent wants to see their child spoken of in that way and no parent should.”
Cosden had no criticism of the school district, which she said has worked to meet her child’s needs. Cosden’s daughter is in the gifted program in addition to a special needs classroom.
“My experience with the school district has, overall, been great, which is why this is so disappointing,” Cosden said.
Despite the topic of the original post, Cosden also said she and Sawicki do agree on one key thing.
“I appreciate, even though Marni’s post was clearly critical of me, that she deleted the comments because she also has been a victim of the same (social media) behaviors with her daughter. Families are off limits,” she said.
Chilton could not be reached for comment.