The Central Bucks East High School teacher who blogged complaints about her students will return to school this fall.
Natalie Munroe, who has taught English at CB East since 2006 and earned $54,500 this year, was after students found her blog this February.
Superintendent N. Robert Laws said at the time that Munroe's blog posts about her students and co-workers were "very egregious" and "certainly could result in termination."
The school district's human resources director confirmed Wednesday that Munroe would return, but declined to comment further. Laws later sent an email to the newspaper, saying the district will hold a press briefing next week and will have no further comment until that time. It is unclear why the district is allowing Munroe to return.
Steve Rovner, Munroe's attorney, said in an email Wednesday that Munroe "has been reinstated to her same position at the same school teaching the same subjects and classes."
"I personally believe that her talents as a teacher would best be utilitized in a different school within the district, however, this is not an option," Rovner wrote. "As Natalie has just confirmed her reinstatement with the district today, she is taking a few days to digest this development in what has become an important national First Amendment, employment and education case."
Munroe's blog was called "Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?" She wrote for more than a year about Food Network stars, recipes and her favorite movies. In between those posts, she wrote long, profanity-peppered rants about Central Bucks administrators, her co-workers and her students. The blog had nine "followers."
"My students are out of control. They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners," Munroe wrote in October 2009, a little more than a month after she started her blog. "They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire and are just generally annoying."
Munroe wrote multiple posts in the year that followed in which she talked about her own boredom and her desire to "sit this one out." She described her students as "lazy," "rat-like," "frightfully dim," "whiny, simpering grade-grubbers" and a variety of curse words.
She also posted an image of a school bus with the comment, "I don't care if you lick windows, take the special bus or occasionally pee on yourself... you hang in there sunshine. You're friggin' special."
Munroe did not name students in any of the posts reviewed by the newspaper.
Students found the blog on Feb. 8 and circulated it via social media.
'Shocked' and 'disgusted'
Munroe deleted the blog the following day, but later restarted it and said she stood by what she wrote. Her new blog has 633 "followers."
Students, parents and community members already have had mixed reactions about the news of Munroe's return.
"As a parent,... you definitely have a reaction of, 'This person should not be in the classroom if she feels the way she feels. However, I also have to look at it from (the perspective of) a member of the community and a taxpayer. And I have to look at why the school board... What are the reasons for doing it?" said Buckingham parent Paul Calderaio on Wednesday.
"If it's gonna be because it could cause this big law suit and they could lose, I have to be cognizant of, as a taxpayer and member of the community, how that affects my fellow taxpayers. I do believe there are certain things, even if it costs money, that you have to stand up for. This might be one of those cases... I need to look at the reasoning and see the stipulations of her coming back to the classroom."
Calderaio said in February that he believes Munroe's blog was an act of "bullying," and that he was "shocked" and "disgusted" by what he read — especially the image of the school bus.
Patricia Dybalski, a Buckingham resident and mother, said on Twitter Wednesday that she was "outraged."
"I do not know how this is possible," she wrote.
She and Rich Gale, a parent of children who attend East, said they intend to call the school and ask that Munroe not teach their children.
Devon Broglie, a recent graduate of CB East, said she thinks it's great Munroe is returning to school.
"It's the only way for her to face reality," Broglie said. "The students have heard what she said in her blogs and won't forget it. Her classroom next year will be extremely tough. She has lost the respect needed to control a classroom. I think it's the best move for the school district to allow her to return and allow her to feel the repercussions of her actions without the district being criticized for unfair treatment.
"Hopefully, this scandal has taught her to watch what she says and to understand that what she does outside the classroom can and will affect her authority as a teacher. I'm glad that I have graduated and will be able to learn in a calm and drama-free environment."
Sean Curran, of Doylestown, said on Twitter Wednesday that he supported the district's decision to bring Munroe back: "It's nice to see cooler heads can and have prevailed."