Florida teacher fired for giving 0% to students who didn't turn in homework

A Florida teacher was fired for giving zeroes to students who didn't turn in their homework. School policy says that the lowest grade teachers can give is 50 percent.

The student and parent handbook for West Gate K-8 school in Port St. Lucie, Florida, says no zeros will be given to students.

The lowest possible grade they can get is 50 percent.

A teacher was fired for giving a zero percent to students who do zero work, and she wants that policy to change.

Motivation, inspiration: That's what Diane Tirado strives to provide her students as a long-time teacher.

So she sought the same when she started teaching eighth grade history at West Gate in Port St. Lucie last month.

But then she assigned an explorer notebook project.

When several students didn't turn it in, Tirado found out about the school's no zero policy, reflected in the student and parent handbook.

WPTV talked with a parent at the school who agrees with the policy.

"You don't know what's going on at home, and what you see is front level, because if my son blatantly chooses not to do it, he knows he's got an issue. Ain't that right?" the parent said.

Tirado was fired on September 14, but there's no cause mentioned in the letter from the principal since she was still in her probationary period.

On her last day, she wrote a message to her students on her whiteboard before she left. She sent out a picture of it through a class app.

Her students responded.

"You were right about not giving people 50s," one of the students said.

Tirado then posted the message on Facebook, where it's been shared more than 1000 times.

Tirado hopes to motivate policy change.

"I'm so upset. We have a nation of kids that are expecting to get paid and live their life just for showing up, and it's not real," she explains.