Late nights of finishing homework and grinding to get assignments polished to perfection is a common occurrence in high school. It should be obvious that students should rewarded for all the time and effort they put in to maintain good grades. For the Port St. Lucie School District in Florida, this is not necessarily the case.

Eighth grade history teacher Diane Torado was allegedly fired for giving a student a zero for an assignment they didn’t turn in. The school district has a policy stating that teachers aren’t allowed to give students a grade lower than 50 percent, which is considered a half point, regardless of the quality of the work or if it was even turned in at all.

Even if they turned in nothing at all, teachers were told that the grading system was still supposed to be applied. Allowing grading to be like this is rewarding students for getting away with poor quality or nonexistent schoolwork.

Torado was standing up for what she felt was right and was left jobless. After not being able to say goodbye to her students, a note was left by her on the whiteboard saying “Bye kids. Ms. Torado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you 50 percent for not handing anything in.”

A common mantra my teachers have always gone by is, “a grade is earned, not given.” But this Florida school system has completely forgotten that idea just to spare the feelings of students who don’t care enough to put in the work necessary to receive a good grade.

The bare minimum can’t be tolerated by teachers. Along with teaching students, a teacher’s job is to help their students learn life skills that they need for the real world. If someone doesn’t do their job properly at work, they won’t be given a paycheck. They will be left looking for a new job, and if they have a record of laziness they’ll have a lot of difficulty getting hired anywhere.

Firing Torado for trying to hold her students accountable is wrong. Torado was showing her students that the real world won’t allow them to be lazy, and life won’t wait for anyone to catch up.

I commend Torado. Even as she was getting fired she taught her students a life lesson by leaving the message on the board. If only more people would stand up against polices that taught students to be lazy, America wouldn’t be falling so far behind.