Petition calls for removal of 2nd-grade teacher after 'absolutely pathetic' comment on student's work goes viral

A petition calling for the termination of a second-grade teacher at a Pennsylvania public school has garnered more than 7,000 signatures after a social media post regarding her feedback to a student went viral.

Chris Piland took to Facebook to voice his displeasure with his son's second-grade teacher at Valley View Elementary School — identified as Alyssa Rupp Bohenek by the Scranton Times-Tribune — after she wrote a remark on a math assignment.

Written in red ink above the assignment, which features 50 subtraction problems, the teacher allegedly wrote of the 7-year-old’s work: "Absolutely pathetic. He answered 13 in 3 min! Sad."

"I am beyond frustrated that someone would write this on a childs work," Piland shared.

According to the Times-Tribune, school superintendent Rose Minniti, was made aware of the remarks written on the assignment on Tuesday. After a meeting between the Valley View School District and the teacher, an investigation has been initiated.

“It’s a personnel issue and the results of that are not going to be dictated by social media,” Minniti told the news outlet. “It’s going to be dictated by the facts and evidence.”

Still, many online are calling for the teacher to be fired.

"Alyssa Rupp Bohenek is a teacher for the Valley View school district that thinks it's ok to bully and talk down to her students, and needs to be removed," reads the petition, "Fire Alyssa Rupp Bohenek."

A counter-petition has been launched in defense of Bohenek, although it did repeatedly misspell her last name and only has 62 signatures so far. Those in support of Bohenek believe, "it is something she should [be] reprimanded for but certainly not fired over."

“As always with everything, we’re going to try to do what’s best for the students and what we need to do for the employee under investigation,” Minniti said.