TIME
One day last fall Teacher Elsie May Peters walked into her junior high school classroom in Knoxville, Tenn., smelled an odd aroma and snapped: “What jackass turned on that gas?”
Last week, after a 4½-day open hearing —in which she was defended by Lawyer Ray Jenkins (Army-McCarthy hearings) —Teacher Peters was cleared of any misconduct (and of the subsidiary charge of accepting trading stamps for good grades), told to use only language that was “characteristic of [her] profession.”
Unexamined and unsolved was the central question: What jackass turned on that gas?
More Must-Reads from TIME
- The New Face of Doctor Who
- Putin’s Enemies Are Struggling to Unite
- Women Say They Were Pressured Into Long-Term Birth Control
- Scientists Are Finding Out Just How Toxic Your Stuff Is
- Boredom Makes Us Human
- John Mulaney Has What Late Night Needs
- The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Contact us at letters@time.com