A Class Without a Teacher

  by Nina Mariotti With the way news travels so quickly, almost everyone has heard about the incident revolving around Ms. Lippolis, a social studies teacher here at Branford High School. During one of her freshman classes, Lippolis held some kind of cooking knife in front of her students and made a joke about something bad happening to them if they didn’t do their homework. Since the incident, Lippolis has been on leave and is currently being investigated. The whole ordeal has brought a lot of attention to our school, and a few local news sites have covered it. Many students sympathize with the teacher. “Ms. Lipolis likes to joke a lot. I don’t think she would do anything like that seriously. It might have just been taken out of context. I guess [the school] is responsible for the student’s safety, but I still think she’s a good teacher and should be back,” commented a senior girl who had Ms. Lippolis as a teacher her freshman year. Robert Miniter, who had Ms. Lippolis as a teacher last year thought everything, was taken too seriously. “I think people don’t know how to take a joke,” he says. “The whole thing got blown up out of proportion. Ms. Lippolis is the bomb!” Other students agree that precautions have to be taken. “If a student had done something like that, they would have been expelled! You can’t be biased toward teachers. It’s only fair,” says one senior guy. As for now, Ms. Lippolis classes are being taken over by other social studies teachers here at the high school. “I think its better that our classes are being taught by actual teachers rather than different substitutes because they understand how the school works and what we need to learn,” says Marissa Salazar, a freshman. “If Ms. Lippolis were to come back, it might be a little awkward, but I wouldn’t feel threatened at all,” she added.  As of now it is unknown when she will be back and the school is anxiously waiting to hear any news of her arrival.