A New Hampshire teacher was fired after she secretly accompanied a pregnant student with special needs to an abortion clinic.
The teacher, whose name has not been identified to protect the identity of the student, admitted to her employer that she faked a sick day for the mission.
She told staff she had food poisoning, but instead took a student to the medical center, according to court documents.
According to the Boston Globe, the teacher was listed as working for Regional Services and Education Center Inc, a nonprofit based in Amherst.
The umbrella institution serves students in grades five through twelve with special educational needs and disabilities in several schools in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
A New Hampshire teacher was fired after it was discovered that she had secretly accompanied a pregnant student with special needs to an abortion clinic. (In the photo: entrance to one of the schools served by the coordinating institution where the woman worked)
It comes after New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut aired the allegation in an op-ed he wrote in April titled “Thank God someone is watching the children.‘.
While criticizing a litany of problems in the school system, he questioned “should we turn a blind eye” when “an educator allegedly lies when calling in sick so he can take a student, without her parents’ knowledge, for an abortion?”
He also called out “school counselors who encourage students to change gender without involving their parents” and a “mentor teacher who drinks on the job” while “other educators turn a blind eye.”
Edelblut is a former Republican gubernatorial candidate who last year expressed disappointment over the defeat of “parental rights” legislation that would have led to greater transparency for parents about what happens in schools.
State officials opened an investigation into the teacher’s alleged failure to separate students’ personal lives from her role as a classroom educator.
Abortion is legal in New Hampshire up to 23 weeks and six days of pregnancy. There is no suggestion that abortion in this case was illegal.
It comes after New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut (pictured) aired the allegation in an op-ed he wrote in April titled “Thank God Someone’s Watching the Kids.”
Court documents say the teacher involved told investigators she helped the student “determine how advanced he was” so he “knew what options would be available to him.”
He found a “safe” location for the procedure and discussed it with the student, before offering to accompany him because “he didn’t have anyone to support him.”
But when her employers found out, they put her on administrative leave for the remainder of her employment contract, at which point her role will end.
Letters to the teacher from the New Hampshire State Department of Education show she is accused of “failing to adequately supervise and adhere to ethical standards regarding student boundary protocols with a student in her care.”
The school has provided special education services for more than 40 years.
The teacher, whose name has not been identified to protect the identity of the student, admitted to her employer that she faked a sick day for the mission. (In the photo: one of the schools served by the coordinating institution where the woman worked)
It comes as abortions hit their highest level in 10 years despite bans on the procedure in more than a dozen states.
A report published in March 2024 by a reproductive health company Guttmacher Institute showed that there were 1 million abortions in the United States in 2023, the equivalent of 16 per 1,000 women.
That was 10 percent higher than the 14.4 per 1,000 in 2020 and the highest since 2014, when the rate was 14.6 per 1,000.
The increase is largely due to medication abortions, which can be requested at online pharmacies and soon in person, although they are illegal in more than a dozen states that have banned abortion.