Suspended blogger to return to class

Natalie Munroe, the 11th grade English teacher who was suspended from Central Bucks East High School after blogging about her students, will be returning to the school next month.

Munroe "will teach at the same school, the same grade and the same classes," her lawyer, Steven L. Rovner, said this afternoon. "There's nothing different from before."

Munroe will have no comment at this time, Rovner said. The district also has declined comment until it holds a press briefing next Wednesday, according to a statement from the superintendent's office.

In February, Munroe was suspended after the district became aware of her blog, which described some students as "frightfully dim," "whiny," "tactless," and "utterly loathsome in all imaginable ways." Munroe wrote that she felt limited by the "canned" responses available to her to comment on student report cards.

She wrote under the name Natalie M. and did not identify her school, district, colleagues, or students. But the blog - "Where Are We Going, and Why Are We in This Handbasket?" - included her picture. It regularly got "nine readers, two of whom were myself and my husband," she said, adding that it consisted mostly of innocuous musings about her daily life.

She might have written at least one post during school hours, district administrators said.

Munroe was also on maternity leave and now has a 4-month-old girl in addition to a 3-year-old daughter, said her husband, Bryan Munroe.