Mr. Haczynski, the IB TOK teacher at Strawberry Crest is being forced to take a leave of absence due to the situation the district placed him in. His wife, Erin, secured an eLearning position due to her underlying health conditions, yet Mr. H was told he must attend school daily. Undoubtedly, Mr. H is not willing to compromise the health of his wife, especially when his job can be perfectly fulfilled virtually. Going back and forth to school and meeting numerous students will undoubtedly put himself and his wife at risk.

At the school level, he discussed his complications with Mrs. Raburn and emailed her supervisor and the Chief Academic Officer and the Superintendent. But none of them were able to develop a compromise. Due to the district’s actions, it is us, the students, who are suffering.

It is well known that Mr. H genuinely cares about each of his students. Because of this, he has already laid out the modules for the rest of the semester and put together a step by step plan along with procedures for both our EE, TOK Essay, and TOK Presentation. On a personal level, we will all certainly suffer without him. If you ask anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting and working with Mr. H, they will tell you that his hard work and pure optimism is a central cause of our incredibly high pass rates here at Strawberry Crest.

We, the students of Strawberry Crest, are pleading the Hillsborough County School Board to allow Mr. H to continue teaching at home. Please sign the petition to show your support for our cause.