POTTSTOWN >> Early in the morning of Saturday, March 25, the main academic quad on The Hill School campus was lined with students.
What made that circumstance unusual is they were all sitting down.
They were sitting in protest, some have informed The Mercury, over the firing of a teacher, science instructor Tracey McGrath.
Cathy Skitko, director of communications for the school, confirmed the sit-in, but declined further comment in detail.
“This is a school personnel matter involving a faculty member. Last Saturday morning, a small group of students assembled quietly to support the teacher,” Skitko wrote in an email.
Photographs of the event provided to The Mercury show at least 80 people participating.
“We would like to emphasize that there are no regulatory, student safety, or financial issues involved,” Skitko wrote. “Beyond that, we cannot comment on school personnel matters.”
According to The Hill School’s website, McGrath was among 15 teachers hired in 2014. However, links to her profile and nearly all mention of her on the website, which show up in Google searches, have been deleted from the school’s website.
A former researcher and Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, McGrath was fired abruptly before the term ends, according to student sources who indicated they feared being expelled from the prestigious private school if their names were published.
Those sources said McGrath had a conflict with Headmaster Zachary Lehman.
