ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT ACTIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ...

Of the five cases, two common threads existed among each case: (1) a failure to uphold
or interpret a school policy appropriately on the part of the administrator and (2) an otherwise
satisfactory work performance on the part of the administrator. For example, in Totten v. Board
of Education of the County of Mingo (1983 W. Va.), Totten issued final report cards on a Friday
when students still had 2 days of school remaining the following week. Thus a great percentage
of students did not attend school on those final days. Totten exhibited poor judgment in his
decision making, but he did not violate policy nor did he disregard directives to not distribute the
report cards as no directive was given from the superintendent or school board. Moreover, Totten
had performed admirably in his first year as a school administrator. Like Totten, but with much
more serious ramifications, Bell v. Board of Education (1986) concerned the suspension of Bell
for failure to properly uphold school trip policies on a field trip where a student drowned. Bell
had served very well as a principal but failed to employ all facets of the school field trip policy,
which warranted disciplinary action--one could argue that suspension was quite mild considering
that it stemmed from the death of a student.
Upon review, school systems sought termination when the actions of the school
administrator were too egregious that lesser discipline or simply waiting out the life of the
contract was not a viable option. The cases that were litigated for suspensions were all instances
where the outcome of the problem was not overly harmful. With terminations, however, the
outcome of simply suspending the administrator would not be strong enough discipline to satisfy
the public.
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