ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT ACTIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ...

charged with incompetence is more likely to build credence based on distance and volume.
Complaints that originate outside the school tend to build momentum quickly as they often
include media outlets and almost always involve local politics. Obviously, the volume of the
complaints is of extreme importance. Incompetence is much more easily assumed when the
outcry from teachers, parents, and students is loud and overwhelming. After review, ineptitude is
a difficult charge to overcome due to its seeming connection to the relationship of the school
administrator with his/her constituency.
Next, Sacken (1996) unearthed adverse employment actions rendered for what he
considered to be “outrageous conduct.” That conduct varied from sexual misconduct on the part
of administrators and subordinates to drug related charges. Sacken noted that sexual misconduct
ranged from consensual sex between administrators and subordinates to sexual harassment suits,
to sexual abuse claims by students. In regard to sexual misconduct between administrators and
subordinates, it is important in terms of adverse employment actions to determine whether the
conduct--albeit inappropriate--negatively impacts the school. If not, the likelihood of adverse
employment actions holding up under litigation is not strong (Davison, Strope, & Uerling, 2003).
Sacken (1996) also identified instances whereby administrators had been terminated for failure to
appropriately respond to sexual abuse allegations. Moreover, the loss of the job is not the end of
such affairs as failure to properly report now renders the school administrator liable to criminal
action and civil action due to the tort incurred (DeMitchell & Carroll, 2005). Sexual misconduct
on any level is of great concern and likely grounds for adverse employment action; however, if
the activity was consensual, then burden of proof rests with the school system to show that the
conduct was detrimental to the operation of schooling.
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