BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) Nearly one hundred supporters of Boston Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson packed the AME Zion Church in Jamaica Plain on Saturday morning following backlash over her failure to discipline a school headmaster after learning he faced criminal charges.
Parents, students, members of the community and City councilors, including Felix Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley spoke on her behalf.
Johnson spoke publicly at the end of the rally, thanking her supporters and was visibly emotional, wiping away tears.
Despite City Councilor John Connolly calling for her resignation earlier this week, Dr. Johnson told FOX 25's Anthony DiLorenzo that she has no plans on stepping down and will fulfill her contractual duties for her term that expires in 2015.
Connolly is one of many people calling for Dr. Johnson's resignation after it was learned that she allowed Rodney Peterson, headmaster at the John D. O' O'Bryant School of Mathematics & Science in Roxbury, to keep working without facing any internal discipline after he was accused of punching and choking his wife. The alleged act happened just five weeks after Peterson's wife gave birth to their first child.
An online petition calling for Dr. Johnson's resignation with the headline, "Superintendent Johnson has lost the public's trust and must resign or be fired immediately," has surfaced on the Internet.
Dr. Johnson has called her handling of Rodney Peterson a mistake and says she learned her lesson. She now says personnel facing criminal charges should be put on administrative leave.
