Teacher Fired for Skipping Work for 20 Years
If skipping work was an Olympic sport, Cinzia Paolina De Lio could have brought home a lot of gold medals for Italy. She was hired to teach literature and philosophy at a high school near Venice, but education authorities say she was absent for 20 of the 24 years she was on the payroll—and she wasn't much of a teacher when she did show up, the BBC reports. According to testimony heard at Italy's top court, students complained that she made up lessons as she went along, borrowed their textbooks because she had forgotten her own, and marked tests in a "random and improvised" manner. At one point, her students went on strike because she was constantly distracted by her phone, the court heard.
De Lio was first fired in 2017 but was reinstated on appeal the following year, leading to a counter-appeal from the education ministry in a legal battle that ended at the top court, which confirmed the dismissal and described her as "permanently and absolutely unsuitable" for the job, the Times of London reports. According to Italian media, she used sick leave and vacation time and cited family matters to avoid work, but also gained qualifications in pet therapy and criminology while away from the classroom, per LBC.
After the decision, De Lio vowed to "reconstruct the truth of the facts of this absolutely unique and surreal story." The BBC reports that she told Italy's Repubblica newspaper she had documents to prove that she didn't skip work for 20 years, though she added, "Sorry, but right now I'm at the beach." (Read more strange stuff stories.)
Source: Newser
