Tabiona teachers reprimanded

Action comes over their treatment of a young rape victim

By Preston McConkie
For the Deseret News
Published: Sunday, April 27, 2008 1:16 a.m. MDT
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TABIONA, Duchesne County — A certified teacher and a substitute teacher assigned to upper grades at the rural Tabiona School have been reprimanded for saying a teenage rape victim should not object to profane material in a reading assignment.

The substitute teacher, Gayla Hamilton, reportedly admitted telling the 16-year-old Duchesne County girl she had "been around the block" and shouldn't be disturbed by harsh language and sex scenes in "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. The novel was assigned to a group of eight juniors and seniors at the one-building K-12 school in Tabiona.

Hamilton also reportedly admitted revealing the identity of the girl's rapist to a classroom of the girl's peers after the girl said she did not wish to discuss the matter.

Before and after principal Robert Park pulled the novel out of the class for review by the Duchesne County School District two weeks ago, the English teacher who assigned the novel, Glenda Norviel, made statements to reporters saying the girl had "supposedly been raped" and "If she's been through all this, why can't she be allowed to read a little suggestive matter?"

She also said the girl "is not an innocent" and "If she just had a baby six weeks ago, is reading the F-word going to cause her emotional trauma for the rest of her life?"

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The girl's attacker was arrested, confessed to committing aggravated rape, and was sentenced to prison. He will not be considered for parole until 2017. The girl's history became known to her classmates and teachers because she became pregnant from the rape and decided to carry the child to term while attending school. She gave birth in January, and the child was adopted by a married couple.

In late March, the girl objected to being assigned to read a book she called "filthy." Norviel then assigned her to write an essay about her personal history. Eventually the girl was removed from the English classroom, sitting in the hallway while other students continued reading and discussing the novel.

In the wake of a hubbub over the novel and the girl's treatment, the girl began attending a different school this past Thursday. According to her mother, the girl will be allowed to get full credit for the semester despite changing classes during mid-term.

Friday, Duchesne Schools Superintendent John Aland said he had given Norviel a letter of reprimand and had forwarded statements from her, the girl and others to Carol Lear, an attorney with the Utah Professional Practices Commission.

"That's usually what I do with things like this with licensed professional teachers, if I think they're serious enough," Aland said, adding that the commission can recommend actions to the district or could use its own authority to take action regarding Norviel's teaching license.

Because Hamilton is a substitute teacher, Aland said, he left her case to Park, who had already counseled Tabiona School staff about not speaking inappropriately to students about personal matters.

"There really has been no other action than the counseling," Park said Friday. "I had (Hamilton) write down her interpretation of what happened so I could review that, and I shared that with the superintendent. We've told her what to do, and if anything else like this happens, we will not be able to use her anymore."

Hamilton did not return a call seeking comment.

E-mail: preston@ubstandard.com

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Recent comments

You are correct lets hear all parties involved in this. When all...

RE:Patty | May 1, 2008 at 9:12 a.m.

I was actually raised in this town and trust me there are two sides...

Patty Parkhurst | April 30, 2008 at 4:10 p.m.

I am totally amazed at the criminal insensitivity of these teachers...

Amazed! | April 28, 2008 at 12:50 a.m.