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Couple sued by Baldwin School teacher file response claiming she had poor record

The Gladwyne couple who are being sued by a former second grade teacher on grounds they cost her her job at The Baldwin School have responded to her allegations by detailing 72 complaints from parents and others about her loud, threatening classroom manner.

The Gladwyne couple who are being sued by a former second grade teacher on grounds they cost her her job at The Baldwin School have responded to her allegations by detailing 72 complaints from parents and others about her loud, threatening classroom manner.

In documents filed yesterday afternoon, Michael and Sheryl Pouls charged that rather than being the model teacher as she has claimed, Patricia Tollin "had one of the worst records--if not the worst record--of all the teachers in the roughly 120 year history of The Baldwin School."

The documents from the Poulses includes a counterclaim in which they are suing Tollin for defamation, invasion of privacy, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The 86-page file from the Pouls family is the latest salvo in a bitter, Main Line dispute that erupted in June when Patricia Tollin, 67, filed suit against the Poulses and against the private girls' school in Bryn Mawr where she had taught for 22 years.

In her complaint, Tollin alleged that rather than risk a mult-million gift for a new athletic facility promised by the Poulses, Baldwin's new head of school sided with them and did not offer Tollin a new, one-year teaching contract for the current school year.

The family had complained to Baldwin officials that Tollin had shouted at and humiliated their second-grade daughter during the last school year.

The Poulses' filing, which includes what the complaint says are excerpts from Tollin's personnel file, maintains that Baldwin parents have been complaining for years that Tollin screamed at and belittled their daughters and that school administrators had admonished her to change her behavior. The Pouls attorney subpoenaed the file as part of their discovery in the lawsuit.

"It is my belief that the teacher was very embarrassed by the fact her contract was not renewed and has tried to lay the blame on my family," Michael Pouls said.

Tollin could not be reached for comment. A phone call to her attorney was not immediately returned.

"I have not seen the Pouls' answer, and it is the school's policy not to discuss the personnel record of any employee, even a former employee, in the media," said Leslie Pfeil, a Baldwin spokeswoman.

The school has denied the allegations outlined in Tollin's suit.

"The Pouls never demanded anything relative to Mrs. Tollin's employment, nor did they make any demand regarding their donation to the school," Pfeil wrote in an e-mail. "The school has not and never will dismiss an employee at the request of a donor. Mrs. Tollin's non-renewal was based on very solid information, observations and her personnel history.

"The school has made every effort and continues to make every effort to resolve this lawsuit with Mrs. Tollin in a generous and thoughtful way. Unfortunately, our offers have been rejected.

"The school administration has behaved ethically at all times, and all decisions have been made in the best interests of our students. The welfare of our students always comes first."