Year suspension for teacher who had kindergartners vote to oust class mate

This from the Palm Beach Post:

FORT PIERCE — A St. Lucie County teacher who sparked a national controversy for instructing her students to vote on whether an autistic boy should remain in his kindergarten class was placed on unpaid leave Tuesday.

The St. Lucie County School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to accept the recommendation of Superintendent Michael Lannon to place Wendy Portillo on unpaid leave and to remand the issue to the state Division of Administrative Hearings.

In a letter to Portillo sent earlier this month, Lannon said her actions caused “worldwide outrage and condemnation.”

“Causing 5- and 6-year-old peers to pass judgment on one of their own, to state the reasons for their ‘vote’ and then to act on the outcome is a true failure to apply professional judgment at best,” he wrote.