Nursing teacher fired for leaving to help at WTC

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- A nursing teacher at a Springfield college said she was fired because she left her job without permission to go help people who lost relatives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Deborah Adelman said she was initially suspended for two weeks after she left St. John's College without permission. Later she received a letter informing her she was dismissed for "job abandonment." The letter was signed by Jane Schachtsiek, chancellor of the nursing school.

St. John's officials have declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters.

Adelman, a longtime Red Cross Disaster Health Service volunteer, said she felt it was her duty to go to Connecticut to counsel people who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attacks. She said she asked college administrators for the time off but was told the school could not spare her.