\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNew documents from the Sacramento City Unified School District detail the decision-making behind reassigning a sixth-grade teacher, Jeanine Rupert, to a different school after she and her students attempted to remove a carpet from her classroom at Phoebe Hearst Elementary.Her removal from the school has sparked protests from both parents and students. Parents even served the school board president a recall notice. Records obtained by KCRA 3 Investigates show Rupert had requested the carpet’s removal twice since 2015, once in June 2023 and again in February 2024, but it was only cleaned each time. \u201cRoom 7 is asking again that their carpet be removed. It is heavily stained and frayed at some parts. Teacher would prefer her room to be all tile. Thank you,\u201d the February request reads. SCUSD District spokesperson Brian Heap said each time a work order was placed for a flooring replacement, district staff assessed the carpet and determined it was not time for replacement.In June 2025, Rupert and students, whom she said volunteered to help, pulled up parts of the carpet, leading to her placement on administrative leave on July 11. The district accused her of “intentionally destroying district property and posing a safety risk to student and staff.”In a notice sent to Rupert, the district said repairing and replacing the flooring in the classroom cost more than $22,000. The bulk of those charges was $12,600 for asbestos removal.The notice also said that at least three students helped remove the carpet, and while it was found they weren’t exposed to asbestos, they did use hammers and crowbars. “These students, as well as you, could have been seriously injured or become ill when removing the carpet, causing the district to be liable for any injuries or illnesses. A student was reported ill after the removal of the carpet,” Stacey Shorey, SCUSD HR Director, said in a notice sent to Rupert. The notice ends with a notification that she’ll be transferring schools.Rupert responded in a letter, acknowledging her mistake but expressing that she believed the carpet was a health hazard, describing it as \u201cstained, foul-smelling, frayed, and infested with fleas in spring 2025.\u201dThe district clarified that the flea issue was resolved before the carpet was removed. Rupert also repeatedly referenced other colleagues who had also removed carpets from their classrooms in her letter. She also said she offered to pay for a contractor to finish removing the carpet, but the offer was declined. “With respect, I simply feel that the punishment does not fit my actions and I would again implore the District to reconsider my transfer,\u201d she wrote. Rupert emphasized that transferring her against her wishes has been very difficult for her and said she believed it would negatively impact the students at the school. Rupert’s attorney did not return a call for comment on Wednesday afternoon. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
New documents from the Sacramento City Unified School District detail the decision-making behind reassigning a sixth-grade teacher, Jeanine Rupert, to a different school after she and her students attempted to remove a carpet from her classroom at Phoebe Hearst Elementary.<\/p>\n
Her removal from the school has sparked protests from both parents and students<\/a>. Parents even served the school board president a recall notice<\/a>. <\/p>\n Records obtained by KCRA 3 Investigates<\/a> show Rupert had requested the carpet’s removal twice since 2015, once in June 2023 and again in February 2024, but it was only cleaned each time. <\/p>\n \u201cRoom 7 is asking again that their carpet be removed. It is heavily stained and frayed at some parts. Teacher would prefer her room to be all tile. Thank you,\u201d the February request reads. <\/p>\n SCUSD District spokesperson Brian Heap said each time a work order was placed for a flooring replacement, district staff assessed the carpet and determined it was not time for replacement.<\/p>\n In June 2025, Rupert and students, whom she said volunteered to help, pulled up parts of the carpet, leading to her placement on administrative leave on July 11. <\/p>\n The district accused her of “intentionally destroying district property and posing a safety risk to student and staff.”<\/p>\n In a notice sent to Rupert<\/a>, the district said repairing and replacing the flooring in the classroom cost more than $22,000. The bulk of those charges was $12,600 for asbestos removal.<\/p>\n The notice also said that at least three students helped remove the carpet, and while it was found they weren’t exposed to asbestos<\/a>, they did use hammers and crowbars. <\/p>\n “These students, as well as you, could have been seriously injured or become ill when removing the carpet, causing the district to be liable for any injuries or illnesses. A student was reported ill after the removal of the carpet,” Stacey Shorey, SCUSD HR Director, said in a notice sent to Rupert. <\/p>\n The notice ends with a notification that she’ll be transferring schools.<\/p>\n Rupert responded in a letter, acknowledging her mistake but expressing that she believed the carpet was a health hazard, describing it as \u201cstained, foul-smelling, frayed, and infested with fleas in spring 2025<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The district clarified that the flea issue was resolved before the carpet was removed. <\/p>\n Rupert also repeatedly referenced other colleagues who had also removed carpets from their classrooms in her letter. She also said she offered to pay for a contractor to finish removing the carpet, but the offer was declined. <\/p>\n “With respect, I simply feel that the punishment does not fit my actions and I would again implore the District to reconsider my transfer,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n Rupert emphasized that transferring her against her wishes has been very difficult for her and said she believed it would negatively impact the students at the school. <\/p>\n Rupert’s attorney did not return a call for comment on Wednesday afternoon. <\/p>\n See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New documents from the Sacramento City Unified School District detail the decision-making behind reassigning a sixth-grade teacher, Jeanine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[15906,3824,3822,121,918,123,122,15907],"class_list":["post-19117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-carpet-removal","tag-jeanine-rupert","tag-phoebe-hearst","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-city-unified-school-district","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-teacher-removed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}