Teacher fired over bullying lesson after student writes about bullied classmate on blackboard

INWOOD, N.Y. -- A middle school teacher fired from her job is looking for justice after she says a well-meaning lesson in her classroom against bullying backfired.

She wants to get her job back.

"It's disgraceful. It's an injustice. It's insane. I don't deserve this. I'm innocent," said Madeline Luciano, a former teacher.

Madeline Luciano says she loves her students and tried to teach them why bullying is wrong.

Back in June, she asked her 8th grade class at IS 18 in Inwood why they were bullying one particular student.

She asked them to write a letter for her eyes only explaining why they didn't like her and why they were sorry.

But the exercise allegedly got out of control when one student marched up to the board and prompted other students to heckle.

"That student got up on his own will and wrote the bully words on the board such as ugly and stupid. I immediately reprimanded the student to put the dry erase marker down," Luciano said.

Luciano says as she told him what he was doing was wrong, his bullied classmate returned to the room.

"She saw one word written on the board, stupid and ugly, and the student was getting ready to erase the words and she sat down and looked for her book bag and started to cry," Luciano said.

The Bronx woman was fired after a Department of Investigation review of the incident.

She wants her job back and her respected reputation restored.

"I am an ethical person. I can't believe that for trying to prevent the bullying would actually backfire on me. Condemn me. It's disgraceful," Luciano said.