Fired Pocatello teacher speaks out

A Pocatello teacher — dismissed, she says, over a photo she posted on her Facebook page — is speaking out and fighting back.

Laraine Cook tells the Idaho State Journal that the Pocatello School District is filing paperwork with the State Board of Education to have her teaching license revoked.

“I spent four-plus years earning that degree,” Cook told the Journal Thursday. “That’s something I take a lot of pride in. To have that taken away for one picture, that’s hard because I worked really hard for that. That’s several years of work, money and time. I’m pretty proud of that degree. To have that taken away because of this, I’m hurt by it. I’m a little frustrated aby it.”

District spokeswoman Shelley Allen declined comment.

“We are not saying another thing,” Allen told the Journal. “She can speak all she wants. We’re done.”

Cook, a teacher and girls basketball coach at Pocatello High School, was dismissed in October, after a photo surfaced that showed her fiancé, Tom Harrison, touching her clothed chest. Harrison, the school’s football coach, was reprimanded over the photo.

The Facebook flap has received national media attention, from the likes of the Huffington Post, Good Morning America.com and the New York Daily News.

Kevin Richert

Kevin Richert

Senior reporter and blogger Kevin Richert specializes in education politics and education policy. He has more than 35 years of experience in Idaho journalism. He is a frequent guest on "Idaho Reports" on Idaho Public Television and "Idaho Matters" on Boise State Public Radio. He can be reached at [email protected]

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