A first-year Orlando teacher and UF alumna is on paid leave following a sixth-grader's allegations that she told him to hold his urge to use the bathroom or urinate in a lunch box. He chose the latter.
Jameeka Chambers teaches language arts at Meadowbrook Middle School and received bachelor's degrees from UF in English and political science, according to her page on Meadowbrook's Web site.
Chambers could not be reached by phone or e-mail for comment.
Kathy Marsh, spokeswoman for Orange County Public Schools, said Chambers has had several meetings, including one on Monday, with the Orange County Public School system board that will decide whether she is at fault.
Marsh said she could not divulge details of the investigation, and the earliest date Chambers' fate would be announced is April 8, at the school board's next meeting.
Marsh said the boy and his mother broke the story to local media before telling the school about the incident on March 13.
By then, Chambers was in New Orleans for a teaching conference until March 18, when she was put on paid leave.
As for the sixth-grader, Marsh said no disciplinary action has been taken because the burden to prove what really happened is on Chambers.
Marsh said it is still unclear whether Chambers' remarks were meant to tease the 13-year-old or to be taken literally.
Theresa Vernetson, assistant dean for student affairs at the UF College of Education, said using sarcasm with students of any age is a poor decision because humor and sarcasm are not interchangeable.
"Students are part of a classroom community, so it's probably never appropriate to be intentionally sarcastic to embarrass anyone," Vernetson said.
She said Chambers' alleged comments to her student seem like they were made out of frustration.
"Sometimes we do say things out of frustration that we wish we would have never said," Vernetson said.
Marsh has only been in her position for a year, but she said this is certainly one of the oddest cases she has ever heard.
"I personally have never had to talk to the media about a case involving urination in a lunch box," she said.
