An Iowa substitute teacher lost her job and unemployment benefits after promising high school students extra credit for donations to her personal GoFundMe for an Ecuador medical mission.
Stephanie Mullaley, a full-time long-term substitute in the Clinton Community School District, was fired May 29 for allegedly violating the district’s ethics policy by tying classroom grades to cash for her own trip.
NY Post reported that Mullaley and her husband Nick planned a July journey with a medical mission group to Ecuador, framing it as service work that would also advance her education.
She set up a personal GoFundMe with an $1,800 goal. It drew only $140 from six donations ranging from $5 to $50 before the page was deleted.
In a Facebook post promoting the fundraiser, Mullaley wrote that the couple had received an official invitation at the end of 2025.
“Nick & I are embarking on a journey this summer with a medical mission group. This was only a thought a year ago, and it became real when we got an official invitation end of 2025. Feels like a blessing to have an opportunity to serve a community in need of medical service and utilize my skills and serve. God put this in place for us, and we’re answering it. Hope to have your support, and if you can’t financially, we understand and just keep us in your prayers.”
She described the trip as a unique chance to travel to Ecuador, help bridge language barriers so care could reach those who needed it most, and let the experience “pay for her education,” while her husband assisted the team in any way he could.
Administrative Law Judge Duane Golden later reviewed the case when Mullaley sought unemployment benefits.
Golden found she had promised high school students in her class extra credit toward their grade if they donated to her GoFundMe account.
“(She) promised high school students in her class that they would receive extra credit toward their grade in her class if they donated to her GoFundMe account. Students felt pressured to donate money to her personal GoFundMe page.”
The judge ruled that her conduct showed a “willful or wanton disregard” of her employer’s interests and made her ineligible for benefits.
Classroom solicitations of this kind turn a teacher’s authority into a fundraising tool. Students who need good grades face an obvious conflict when cash for the instructor’s personal travel appears on the table.
Cases of educator misconduct keep surfacing across the country, including a Washington teacher who pleaded guilty in a separate abuse scandal that also ended a career and drew public anger.
The Clinton Community School District moved quickly once the arrangement came to light, ending Mullaley’s position on May 29.
No full text of the ethics policy appears in the public record of the case, yet the district treated the extra-credit-for-cash pitch as a clear breach.
Mullaley’s own words cast the trip as a God-given chance to serve. The judge’s findings cast it as a personal financial ask backed by grade leverage.
Parents send children to school for instruction, not to guarantee a teacher’s summer travel. When a substitute dangles points for donations, the power imbalance is obvious and the integrity of the grade book is compromised.
Schools exist to educate kids, not to bankroll staff adventures. Teachers who forget that line should expect to lose both the job and the benefits that follow.