Board votes to fire Georgia teacher accused of lowering autistic child head-first into trash
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Education officials have voted to fire a Georgia special education teacher accused of putting a student with autism in a trash can.
Local media report the Cobb County School Board on Thursday voted to terminate 45-year-old Mary Katherine Pursley's contract for the 2015-16 school year.
Pursley said at a hearing Monday at the school district office that she was trying to calm the child. She said he was screaming and upset at an after-school program. She said she compared his behavior to Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street and held him over a trash can to "shake out the grouchy."
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School system attorneys say Pursley "engaged in inappropriate physical contact" with the boy.
Pursley's attorney Warren Fortson said her behavior wasn't inappropriate and shouldn't have resulted in termination.