SOUTHINGTON - Teaching has always been a passion for Marie Jarry, the Thalberg School second-grade teacher who resigned after appearing on Howard Stern's satellite radio show and Internet video broadcast earlier this month.

To continue teaching in the town she loves, Jarry said, she will be filing a lawsuit to get her job back.

Jarry, 28, said she had made a mistake when she took a sick day to participate, with her husband, in Stern's "Ugliest Guy, Hottest Wife" contest, but said she did nothing outlandish on the show. She said she felt as if she was being threatened into resigning and had not been given her due rights in the process.

"Using the sick day for that was an error in judgment on my part," she said. "I don't feel I did anything on the show that affected my responsibilities as a teacher, however, and the punishment is not fitting for misuse of one sick day. I know of others who have been caught misusing sick days more than once and they weren't asked to resign."

Jarry appeared on the show with her husband Aaron, an engineer by trade, on May 1 as one of three finalists for the $5,000 prize. The Jarrys impressed the judges and won.

The couple applied for the contest after Aaron Jarry, a huge fan of Stern, heard about the contest in April and asked his wife if they could enter. Marie Jarry said she thought there was no chance they'd get on, but agreed to do so anyway. They were called a week before the May 1 broadcast and told they were finalists.

"I agreed to appear because there were only three couples left," she said. "If we won, the money was going to help pay for my master's degree. Five thousand dollars, that's two months pay."

The couple was struggling to find money for the $13,000 master's degree costs, she said. Personnel files show she had been making $34,725 when she was hired.

Born Marie Rousseau, Jarry was born and raised in Southington, graduating from Southington High School in 1998 and earning a 2002 bachelor's degree in elementary education from Central Connecticut State University.

She said she had wanted to teach since she was in first grade and returned to the district immediately after college because she had enjoyed her education in town and wanted to give back. She was hired in 2003 and had received tenure before resigning.

Jarry said she returned to Thalberg the day after winning the contest and was not approached about the sick day, but was told when she arrived on May 5 she was not allowed in her classroom and was to report immediately to the superintendent. It was then that she claims she was pressured into resigning.

School Superintendent Joseph V. Erardi said Jarry was asked to come to his office to meet about misuse of the sick day. She elected to meet with representatives of the Southington Education Association, which represents Southington teachers, and the two never had a conversation, he said. Erardi said Thursday that he has not had direct contact with Jarry since she appeared on the show.

Erardi publicly accepted a letter from Jarry during the Board of Education meeting on May 8, the letter stating "Kindly accept my irrevocable letter of resignation for personal reasons, effective today."

"During this process, she willingly submitted the letter," he said. "I can't comment on what others might have said or what she was told by her representatives. From my lens, however, I wanted to meet with her because as every tax dollar is being scrutinized and every position within the district scrutinized, we have great concerns with anyone who uses a sick day for the wrong reasons."

Erardi made it clear that he had pursued the situation only after seeing proof that she had misused the sick day to attend a publicly broadcast event and that her absence had nothing to do with sickness. He said he could not speak any further on the issue without breaking employer confidentiality, as it relates to personnel matters.

Board of Education Chairman Brian Goralski said the board was given the letter but that all personnel matters for the school district go through Erardi's office.

While she never met with Erardi, Jarry said she was under the impression that her job and future were on the line.

"I was told by the union lawyer that the school was threatening to place me under immediate suspension and would begin the process of termination if I did not resign," she said. "They told me the schools could have me arrested for fraud and could have the state revoke my teacher's license."

She agreed to resign at the advice of those representatives, who she said told her she could retract the letter within seven days of filing.

Two days later, the couple was told on air by Stern that the financier of the contest, which the show would not name, would give up to $5,000 more for her to fight the resignation. Jarry immediately got a lawyer and requested before the seventh day for the letter to be retracted, but said she was denied.

"The way this has happened, I just feel bad for my students," she said. "If I could talk to them, I guess I'd tell them I didn't want to leave and I wish I was still working with them."

Jarry said her lawyer is drafting papers and should be prepared to file a suit with the state late next week.

"I don't want this to drag on, all I want is to get back to teaching," she said.

Phone calls placed to representatives of the Howard Stern Show and Sirius Satellite Radio over the past week were not returned.

jvallee@record-journal.com

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