The writing professor assigned Venice High students an item from The New Yorker.

VENICE — It was Lisa del Rosso’s second day on the job as a substitute teacher at Venice High. By late afternoon the writing professor would be banned from working at the school and the entire Sarasota County school district.

A week before winter break in December, del Rosso had 12th-grade students in an Advanced English class read “Alma,” a short story by Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Junot Diaz.

The story, published in The New Yorker, comes from Diaz’s book “This is How You Lose Her” and includes open discussions of race and relationships, as well as graphic descriptions of sex and explicit language.

Not surprisingly, it got the attention of del Rosso’s 12th-graders, who, as one student put it, don’t usually read anything that "isn't blessed by Dr. Seuss himself."

More important for del Rosso, a writing professor at New York University for the past eight years, it got the students talking and engaging with the material. In her first day as a substitute, del Rosso had seen the students — bored and listless — whiz through the work assigned by the teacher and quickly turn to scrolling through their phones.

“The lesson was really about controversy,” del Rosso said. “I asked the class, ‘Do you find this piece controversial? Why do you think The New Yorker picked this piece to publish? Do you find anything in it offensive? Do you think the author did this for shock value or is it authentic to the piece?’”

Within hours, Venice High Vice Principal Rosemary Schmidt reportedly received a call from a parent of a student in the class. Schmidt and Vice Principal Melanie Ritter told del Rosso to stop teaching the story.

It's inappropriate, said administrators.

It's literature, countered del Rosso.

Ritter emailed district leaders asking that del Rosso be removed from the substitute list.

“I didn’t think I was breaking any laws,” del Rosso said. “I was never told I couldn’t hand out controversial material. I didn’t get a warning, it was just: 'We’re banning you. You’re done.'"

She disagreed with the decision, but immediately pulled the story. “If you let the students and parents run the curriculum, that's tantamount to letting the inmates run the asylum," she said.

'Disregarded' lesson plans

For the rest of the day, the lesson plan called for students to watch the movie adaptation of “The Lord of the Flies,” which they were reading in class, and some students told del Rosso they had already read it in earlier grades.

Although she followed the administration's orders to stop teaching the story, del Rosso was nonetheless banned from working in the district under a policy instituted in 2011 that bans substitutes after a single performance complaint.

Venice High Principal Eric Jackson said the school gave del Rosso due process, but added that the administration felt her actions were unacceptable.

“She disregarded the lesson plans, which was in itself inappropriate, and the fact that she presented questionable and highly inappropriate material demonstrated a lack of good judgment,” Jackson said.

At NYU, del Rosso often assigned “Alma” to her freshmen students.

The seniors she worked with at Venice will be freshmen in just a few months, del Rosso said.

“I think you’re doing the students a disservice if you’re assuming they are not mature enough to handle that material,” del Rosso said, adding that she had implemented the lesson plan, but gave the story as supplementary material.

Although she was only at Venice High for two days, del Rosso, who declined to give her age but refers to herself as a Gen-Xer, quickly became a favorite among students who welcomed her desire to challenge them, said Venice High sophomore Sara Bouhamid.

Bouhamid disagreed with administration’s decision to ban del Rosso, but she wasn’t surprised by the reaction to the story.

“If it’s anything controversial in any aspect then it doesn’t go through and there will be drama over it,” she said.

Bouhamid said she’s been discouraged from writing essays on topics such as race and gender because they were deemed too controversial by her teachers.

“The best literature is meant to disturb,” del Rosso said. “Those of us who love literature believe that, and we believe in academic freedom.”

Substitute shortage

At the beginning of the 2016 school year the Sarasota County school district reported a desperate need for substitutes.

The district currently has about 800 substitutes with 97 to 100 percent of the vacancies filled, according to Sarasota County schools spokesman Scott Ferguson.

Substitute teachers are classified as “at will” employees and receive no benefits. They are not represented by the teacher’s union and can be dismissed without warning or cause.

Sarasota County’s one-strike policy makes it one of the strictest districts in Florida. Substitutes can be blacklisted for reasons including losing their temper, being tardy or wearing clothes deemed inappropriate. At orientation, del Rosso said substitutes were not told of the policy.

Substitutes can also replace most positions, including custodians and administrative assistants. In del Rosso’s first week on the job, she was a substitute security guard.

Substitutes with a bachelor’s earn $115 per day. Those who have a master’s, like del Rosso, earn $124 per day.

The job can feel like babysitting, said del Rosso. The hiring process is long, too. Although del Rosso applied in August, she was not officially hired until Dec. 1. She applied on a whim after taking a leave of absence at NYU to take care of her ill mother in Venice.

“Historically, from what I understand, we are always in need of quality substitute teachers,” Jackson said. “South County in particular struggles to maintain strong numbers for whatever reason.”

The district gave del Rosso 10 days to appeal their decision to ban her.

She chose not to appeal.