The Fact Situation
I haven't blogged in a while. I've been really busy and have not had any blog-worthy thoughts to blog about, so I decided to use this post to kind of show y'all what I've been busy with.
As regular readers know, I was enrolled in 2 MBA classes (twice the normal load) from early March to late April. Well, one of them ended last Tuesday, when we took our final and turned in our final paper. The other had its last class meeting last Thursday when we turned in our final (it was take-home), but the paper for that class is not due until early May, and it's a toughie. We have to come up with an employment law situation (basically a story), write it up, then find 3 recent actual law cases from California or the Supreme Court, and use those cases to analyze our story.
The story was pretty easy to come up with. I heard a story on This American Life (the best radio show out there, in my opinion), and tweaked it a little.
Finding cases that were relevant and recent and from California has not been so easy.
Here's my fact situation, as it stands now (I'm sure I will change things before I turn it in):
Paul E. Ticks was a middle school math teacher on a probational contract because he was not yet tenured. Contracts were renewed annually unless notified by a March 15 deadline.
Paul was known in the community for his outspokenness on political issues, his criticisms of local politicians and the school board. In January of the school year, he got into a heated exchange with a student, who was the son of a local politician, criticizing the student’s mother for a stance she took that differed from his. In the heat of the moment, Paul used some expletives, and the incident was reported to the principal and a number of parents whose children were in the class.
Paul was given a verbal and written reprimand, stating that use of such language was inappropriate, and his discussion of political issues in class violated the district’s policy of not allowing political activity in classrooms (the policy was put in place to prevent teachers from using their position of influence to push issues that the students’ parents might be voting on). He was told that a repeat of his actions would lead to a non-renewal of his contract.
A few days before the end of school year, Paul complained to a co-worker about an action taken by the mayor. He referred to the mayor as a “goddamn idiot who never should have been elected.” This statement was made in his classroom, a few minutes before his first class was about to start. A few students who were in class early, heard the statement and it got reported to the principal. In early summer, Paul got notice that his services would not be needed for the next school year.
Paul sued the school district for wrongful termination, claiming that his 1st Amendment rights were violated, he was offered no hearing to explain his side of the story, and the district violated its own policy by not giving him notice of non-renewal by the March 15 deadline.
As regular readers know, I was enrolled in 2 MBA classes (twice the normal load) from early March to late April. Well, one of them ended last Tuesday, when we took our final and turned in our final paper. The other had its last class meeting last Thursday when we turned in our final (it was take-home), but the paper for that class is not due until early May, and it's a toughie. We have to come up with an employment law situation (basically a story), write it up, then find 3 recent actual law cases from California or the Supreme Court, and use those cases to analyze our story.
The story was pretty easy to come up with. I heard a story on This American Life (the best radio show out there, in my opinion), and tweaked it a little.
Finding cases that were relevant and recent and from California has not been so easy.
Here's my fact situation, as it stands now (I'm sure I will change things before I turn it in):
Paul E. Ticks was a middle school math teacher on a probational contract because he was not yet tenured. Contracts were renewed annually unless notified by a March 15 deadline.
Paul was known in the community for his outspokenness on political issues, his criticisms of local politicians and the school board. In January of the school year, he got into a heated exchange with a student, who was the son of a local politician, criticizing the student’s mother for a stance she took that differed from his. In the heat of the moment, Paul used some expletives, and the incident was reported to the principal and a number of parents whose children were in the class.
Paul was given a verbal and written reprimand, stating that use of such language was inappropriate, and his discussion of political issues in class violated the district’s policy of not allowing political activity in classrooms (the policy was put in place to prevent teachers from using their position of influence to push issues that the students’ parents might be voting on). He was told that a repeat of his actions would lead to a non-renewal of his contract.
A few days before the end of school year, Paul complained to a co-worker about an action taken by the mayor. He referred to the mayor as a “goddamn idiot who never should have been elected.” This statement was made in his classroom, a few minutes before his first class was about to start. A few students who were in class early, heard the statement and it got reported to the principal. In early summer, Paul got notice that his services would not be needed for the next school year.
Paul sued the school district for wrongful termination, claiming that his 1st Amendment rights were violated, he was offered no hearing to explain his side of the story, and the district violated its own policy by not giving him notice of non-renewal by the March 15 deadline.
posted by Jefferson at 3:11 PM
1 Comments:
Paul should have been terminated. Some people just beg to be fired. Wrongful termination is one of those phrases that is often simply wrong. In fact, actual wrongful termination is extremely rare however greedy, vengeful people continually use this phrase as they seek so-called justice and revenge against their enemies. In my book, Wingtips with Spurs, Lessons From the Ranch, I title one of the chapters Firing. In it, I detail wrongful termination and what an organization must do to fortify against the turks(that is, Dan Rathers) coming over the wall. Michael L. Gooch, SPHR www.michaellgooch.com
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