A teacher rescinded the letter of a student who made a swastika, then a comment about Adolf Hitler's killing of Jews during the Holocaust.

STOUGHTON – The teacher no longer felt she could stand behind a letter of recommendation she wrote for a student who made a swastika, but she ended up suspended for it.

That punishment has fellow teachers, the union, parents, community members and graduates upset.

It began the week of Thanksgiving in November, when a Stoughton High School student made a swastika using tape while decorating the halls after school. Another student told him it was offensive and to throw it out. The male student then made a comment regarding Adolf Hitler’s killing of Jews during the Holocaust. There was another incident in which a swastika was put into a group chat among students outside of school.

The first incident was brought to the administration’s attention immediately, but the teachers union and superintendent differ in their opinions of how it was handled.

Superintendent of Schools Marguerite Rizzi said fellow students handled the situation appropriately by telling the perpetrators swastikas are offensive. She said the students who were involved were disciplined internally after police determined they did not constitute hate crimes.

But word spread quickly at the school regarding the students’ suspensions and kids began talking about what occurred. That led to teachers discussing it among their colleagues and a few individually with students in private conversations.

And that prompted the parent of the student who made the swastika to file a complaint against a few teachers. Rizzi then brought in an attorney who specializes in civil rights to conduct an investigation into the incidents.

“The student believed that he was being targeted, creating a hostile environment for him by members of the faculty because of his actions, despite having already been disciplined by the administration,” Rizzi wrote in a letter to staff, explaining the parent’s complaint.

Two teachers ended up receiving letters of reprimand for talking about the incidents. But those discussions occurred before an optional staff meeting, which was the first time teachers received any guidance on how or if they should talk to students. The teachers told the administration how they wanted to address anti-Semitism at that meeting.

One teacher had walked into her classroom, where a small group of students were speculating on what occurred. She decided to talk to the students and was punished. The other teacher talked about the situation with her colleagues, as well as one student during a private conversation.

And a third teacher was suspended – for 20 days, without pay – for talking to one student, her colleagues and rescinding a college letter of recommendation for the student who made the swastika out of tape. The student was enrolled in the school’s Holocaust course at the time.

A disciplinary hearing was held for the third teacher last week. That teacher, an Army veteran, was not punished for just rescinding the letter of recommendation, but for telling the college why she did so, the union said. She cannot work Thursdays or Fridays through the beginning of April.

“The Stoughton Teachers Association is deeply troubled by the manner in which the suspension is being implemented,” said John Gunning, the union’s president. “Having the teacher serve the suspension in two-day increments for 10 weeks interrupts the continuity of instruction and is detrimental to the students.”

Melanie Ingrao, a teacher at the school and the union’s grievance chair, said the suspended teacher alerted the college admissions officer that she couldn’t make her recommendation any longer.

“Without the guidance of administration, teachers used their best professional judgment to address a very serious matter amongst their colleagues and with students when they felt it was appropriate,” Ingrao said.

A graduate who took that suspended teacher’s class for her last two years at Stoughton High started a fundraising campaign on Tuesday to help the teacher who was suspended.

“She is the most selfless teacher and she made learning very fun,” said Bruna DeAssis. “She was always in a good mood and did everything she could to help us students be successful. She always told us to fight for our rights. I think it was very unjust of the school to suspend her at all, let alone 20 days and without pay. She was doing her job by correcting this student’s behavior.”

The situation was made public last week by the teachers union when the union read a statement at the School Committee meeting. The superintendent said the situation should not be discussed in the public any further because of possible litigation.

Since then, several parents have written to the superintendent to show their support for the teachers.

“Teachers were told not to speak of the incident, so students were left to make sense of it all amongst themselves. A few teachers found it necessary to speak about the issue and were reprimanded formally,” said Jill Taylor, a parent and graduate of the high school. “I feel that the punishments were harsh – the teachers did what they felt was in the best interest of the students.”

Some parents, like Roxann Freedman, are worried about transparency. Parents were never notified of the November swastika incidents until late January, when the union made it public.

“It should have been transparent from the beginning,” she said. “The day of or after it happened, a letter should have been sent out to the parents discussing what happened and how it was handled.”