Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for June 15, 2006 KY TEACHER TO APPEAL

From the Paducah Sun...

"We've lost the first round," attorney says.

By Brian Peach

Tericka Dye will ask a judge next week to give her what a state hearing officer refused to: a hearing before a state education tribunal on her paid suspension.

Her attorney, Mark Blankenship, said he respects Scott Majors' decision but disagrees with it.

"We've lost the first round of this, at the administrative level," Blankenship said. "We're going to seek judicial review and see if we can get a McCracken County circuit judge to order the hearing."

He said their argument is that it's illegal to suspend a teacher for an extended period of time with pay. In this case, Dye was suspended with pay in April after an 11-year-old adult film featuring her surfaced. State law doesn't mention paid suspensions for teachers; a hearing is required only with written reprimands, unpaid suspensions or firings.

"We're hoping the court agrees" that the suspension wasn't legal "and orders the hearing," Blankenship said, adding that another concern is that the case could set a precedent in which "superintendents all around the state will use this method of suspending with pay so they don't have to go through a tribunal hearing, and that's a waste of taxpayers' money."

In addition to paying the suspended teacher, a school district has to pay a substitute, as the McCracken County School Board did when Superintendent Tim Heller said Dye was not allowed back on school property.

Blankenship said the chance for Dye to give her side of the story, in a public forum, should be her right. "We want the right to clear her name," he said. "If all the evidence came out in this case, and the independent tribunal didn't rule that evidence was adequate to ban her from the property, that would in essence clear her name, and when she tries to get a job at another school, she'll be able to show them the ruling."

He wasn't sure Wednesday whether the court injunction would need to be filed in McCracken County or Frankfort, but it said he will have it done by next week.

On Monday, at the second prehearing conference to determine if the tribunal would be called, a recess was taken after Blankenship was told that Dye had not reapplied for the teaching position she held for a year. After conferring with Dye, Blankenship said she told him that she reapplied on June 8. Apparently, Blankenship said, the school had no record of the application, so Dye rushed to the office Tuesday to reapply.

Reidland High School's site-based council makes decisions on hiring and will consider Dye's request.

"Tericka still wants her job back," Blankenship said, adding that he wrote each site-based member a letter outlining Dye's history. "I asked them to look at the present and not the past."

The hiring process started immediately after the school year ended, said Julie Schroeder, a parent and member of the council. She said all site-based members have followed the proceedings involving Dye.

"We're all aware of what's going on," Schroeder said, adding that many rehires are appointed by July 1, but whether Dye's job will be filled by then is unclear.

Schroeder said many parents have given her their opinions on what should be done, but she wouldn't elaborate.

"We look for the best qualified teacher we can come up with," she said.

When asked whether background is generally considered in hiring teachers, Schroeder said: "Of course. Teachers are supposed to be role models."