Cheerleading teacher featured on YouTube resigns
Associated Press
November 14, 2007 at 6:40 AM EST

MESA, ARIZ. A high school teacher captured in a YouTube clip performing a cheerleading routine in front of her class has resigned.

English teacher and cheerleading coach Cristina Mallon has elected to resign from the Higley Unified School District, district spokeswoman Sara Bresnahan said Tuesday.

Last month, the district placed Ms. Mallon on paid administrative as a standard district procedure after the video surfaced. In it, she is seen performing a seemingly harmless cheer with pompoms inside a classroom as students hoot and cheer.

An edited version of her performance runs for less than a minute on YouTube. It made it all the way to network television, airing on NBC's Today show.

Ms. Mallon returned from her suspension a few weeks later. She was again in the spotlight after a student's father complained about a book she assigned, Jake Reinvented.

The parent said the book was not appropriate for his 14-year-old daughter, a student in Ms. Mallon's freshman English class.

The book, by Gordon Korman, has been described as The Great Gatsby for teens. It tells the story of a cool and popular high school student who is exposed as a fraud.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071114.wcheerleaderteacher1114/BNStory/Technology/home



~X