District defends teacher firing
Published: Friday, Sep. 6, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
The Sacramento City Unified School District has gone to court to uphold the firing of a veteran McClatchy High School teacher who got in a fight with a student during a physical education class.
Jerry Glaviano said he battled the student out of self-defense, that he was attacked when he tried to break up a fight between the youth and another boy during his sixth-period physical education class on Jan. 29.
Glaviano, 58, who stands 5-foot-7 and weighs 120 pounds, came out of the fracas bloodied, battered and dazed. The student, who was at least 6 feet tall and weighed more than 200 pounds, had a tooth loosened in the altercation. He also sustained a bite to his arm.
Sacramento City Unified officials took statements from the two combatants, as well as from eight students who witnessed the fight and generally supported the teacher's version of events. Two