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A state commission is sending a letter of warning to a Duchesne County teacher for speaking inappropriately about a student rape victim and her family to the media.
The Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission (UPPAC) decided Tuesday after an investigation to send a letter of warning to Tabiona School teacher Glenda Norviel. The letter comes after one of Norviel's students, a rape victim, claimed the teacher assigned her to write an essay about her rape and pregnancy in front of the class as an alternative assignment to reading My Sister's Keeper, a novel the student and her family found offensive.
Norviel then made remarks about the girl and her family to newspaper reporters who called her for comment. The Uintah Basin Standard quoted Norviel as saying the girl, "has supposedly been raped by the father of her baby." Court records show a man was convicted of raping the 16-year-old girl.
Norviel also told a Tribune reporter, "The girl is not an innocent. . . . If she has just had a baby six weeks ago, is reading the f-word going to cause her emotional trauma for the rest of her life?"
"She spoke inappropriately and unprofessionally to the local reporter about the student and student's family," said Carol Lear, the commission's executive secretary, of the investigator's findings.
Attempts to reach Norviel for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful. Norviel has said she and the girl decided on the topic in private. Lear said the commission couldn't find conclusive evidence that Norviel assigned the essay topic to the girl in front of her class because of conflicting stories.
The student's mother said she doesn't think the commission went far enough.
"Big deal, a paper in her file," the girl's mother said. "I think she should have been fired. I feel like it's a slap in our face that she can go around and do whatever she wants and it doesn't even matter."
The Tribune normally does not identify rape victims. Identifying the girl's mother could identify the girl.
The letter of warning will stay in Norviel's licensing file for future employers' consideration, Lear said. The Duchesne School District doesn't have to take any further action, she said.
Attempts to reach Duchesne district officials Wednesday were unsuccessful, but the district has already issued Norviel a letter of reprimand for her personnel file.
The district also has decided to create policy to guide teachers in choosing reading materials.