ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT ACTIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ...

staff, and/or parents. This was the issue in three cases. In Lomas v. Board of School Directors of
Northwestern Lehigh School District (1982 Pa. Commw.), Lomas encountered significant
resistance and staff division over her newly implemented reading program. Like Lomas, Terry
was consumed by an incident where he publicly scolded a teacher for calling the fire department
without contacting him. He then proceeded to establish an emergency response plan whereby all
emergency situations had to be put before him before authorities were contacted. This was not
conducive to faculty support, based on the program’s impetus and logic as it was detailed in
Terry v. Woods (1992 U.S. Dist.). Lastly, in Howard v. Columbia Public School District (2004
U.S. App.), Howard did not implement a new program; instead, she criticized a current special
education program and sought to modify the program somewhat and received a harsh backlash
from her faculty. Leaders seeking to change programs must be sure that the changes that they are
attempting to make are supported by their superiors so that they may survive the followers’
responses. In these three cases, the administrators lost in each one.
Second, the next area that caused strife with followers was any instance where sex
became an issue with the administrator and a follower in some capacity which occurred in four
cases. Sex did not have to be an act; it could simply be a remark made that draws the ire of the
followers. For example, in Alabama State Tenure Commission v. Phenix City Board of Education
(1985 Ala. Civ. App.), Carlisle had experienced various issues during his leadership tenure, but
he lost control following some sexually suggestive remarks made to a male teacher about a
female teacher “wanting him.” In Spurlock v. Board of Trustees (1985 Wyo.), the history was
somewhat more complex, insomuch that Spurlock made sexually inappropriate remarks to a
husband-wife pair of teachers at his school. These remarks came after the husband in the pair had
submitted a letter to the editor of the local newspaper criticizing Spurlock’s leadership and
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