LETTER: Teachers' Union Responds To Parent Who Complained (PDF file)

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- Channel 9 has obtained a letter from the teachers' union to a parent who complained Kathy Garrett beat her child years ago. Carol Goings was shocked by the threatening letter she received.

The teachers' union is standing behind that threatening letter. The mother who received it says it shows just how far the union will go to protect even bad teachers.

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"I'm literally shocked. Am I really reading this? Am I having a nightmare?" says Goings.

She received the letter from the teachers' union in March of 2000 after months of complaining about Garrett.

Goings' daughter Melody was 13 at the time and said Garrett slammed her head into a desk. Weeks later, another teacher witnessed Garrett call the mentally challenged girl a liar at school.

An investigation somehow cleared Garrett, but Goings complaints continued. Then she heard from the union.

The letter said her "motives were suspect," that Goings comments were "malicious," that Garrett had "students' best interests at heart" and that if Goings didn't back off, she'd face "formal legal action" and could pay "damages."

Goings said she backed off immediately.

"To hire an attorney against the teacher's union, I wouldn't have money for that," she says.

So Garrett stayed in the classroom for four and a half more years.

The letter to Goings was written at the urging of the Seminole Education Association. Their director has not return repeated calls.

The Florida Education Association, who actually wrote the letter, stood behind it, even knowing about Garrett's arrest on abuse charges.

Carol Goings says she doesn't hold herself responsible for not fighting harder to get Garrett out of the classroom back in 2000. She says, ultimately it's the job of the district to police their teachers, not parents.