MT. PLEASANT, SC (WCSC) -
A lawyer representing a Wando High School teacher says he plans to appeal the school district's decision to fire his client for allegedly showing scenes from the movie "Jackass 2" to his class.
On Wednesday, Charleston County School District officials announced that 36-year-old Christopher Derek Poston was no longer an employee of the school district.
Poston's lawyer said they plan to appeal the decision on Monday. Jason Sakran, school district spokesman, issued the following statement:
"As a matter of protocol we don't disclose the details of personnel matters. As an update, we can tell you 1) we have very clear-cut policies and practices in place to ensure a standard of excellence in every school and classroom; 2) immediately following this incident, Mr. Poston was placed on administrative leave pending investigation; and 3) as of today, Mr. Poston is no longer an employee of the Charleston County School District."
On Feb. 16, the Mount Pleasant Police Department met with the principal and assistant principal at Wando High School in reference to a suspicious incident. School officials say two days earlier, a concerned parent emailed the assistant principal by email about a "disturbing" incident.
The parent said that her daughter was uncomfortable about an incident that happened in her Latin class where Poston, a full-time teacher at Wando, was covering for another teacher.
According to the parent, Poston was watching inappropriate videos on the Internet and put them on the Smart Board for the entire class to see.
The email went on to say that Poston was showing videos of someone putting a "puppet on his junk" and a snake biting the puppet, vulgar gestures and inappropriate pictures of people in Walmart.
A police report states that when someone from the school district came in to work on the computer, Poston quickly exited the program. According to the parent, after the worker left, Poston continued to show the videos to the class.
On Feb. 15, Poston wrote a statement in reference to the incident and confirmed the allegations made. He stated that his actions were unexcusable.
Poston said that while the students were working, he began watching "Jackass 2" from the computer. Poston said that when the students heard the noise, they asked Poston what he was watching.
According to Poston's statement, he told them what he was watching and then placed the video on the Smart Board. Poston said when he saw how inappropriate it was becoming, he quickly turned it off.
He said he showed about 2 to 3 minutes of movie footage. According to Poston, he then opened up a PowerPoint called the "People of Walmart." He said it showed people in Walmart in various forms and used it to express what society expects of people and how people break norms.
When school officials questioned Poston about the incident, Poston said that "Jackass 2" got on the Charleston County computer laptop through his Amazon.com account.
....it would get me to wondering just what the teacher was teaching them.