The next time Samantha Pawlucy returns to class, her father said, it won't be in a Philadelphia public school.
Pawlucy, a sophomore at Charles Carroll High School in Port Richmond, accused her math teacher of publicly humiliating her for wearing a Romney/Ryan T-shirt to school Sept. 28.
Her father, Richard, said his daughter's return to school Tuesday was so uncomfortable that the three high school-age children in his home will not return to Carroll.
"Never. One-hundred percent not," he said. "We don't want anything to do with the district anymore."
Instead, he said by phone Wednesday, the family is looking into transferring the students to a charter school.
The office of State Rep. John Taylor (R., Phila.) is working to help the family in its efforts.
"We've been in contact with them every day since this started. So, basically, we're trying to facilitate some conversations," said Taylor, the city's lone Republican state representative, who represents Port Richmond. "My role is really to keep everybody talking."
Taylor said he spoke Wednesday afternoon to district Superintendent William Hite, whom he described as "very cooperative." The next step, Taylor said, is for the Pawlucys to identify schools of interest so formal requests can be made.
But charter schools can be notoriously difficult to get into.
"All we can do is call and ask the charter schools to talk to the Pawlucys," Taylor said. "I'm not optimistic about those. But we did call and ask them to talk to the families."
Richard Pawlucy said he hoped Taylor would be able to help get the students into a charter school - "We have a lot of faith in him" - but would consider all options. Catholic schools are the next option, he said, followed by other private schools.
"The School District is last in the list," he said. "Behind homeschooling."
Contact Jonathan Lai at 215-854-2771, jlai@philly.com, or follow on Twitter @elaijuh.
