ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT ACTIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ...

Constructive discharges. Six cases included administrator claims that school systems
made their work environment so unbearable that they had no choice but to resign. In these
constructive discharge cases, employees often noted a deprivation of former duties or an
abridgment of power in some capacity. Constructive discharge was not an easily-proven
argument as evidenced by only one successful case in 30 years. Two clear issues became
apparent after review of Table 23. Those issues were the performance of the administrator (Table
25) and the interpersonal skills of the administrator (Table 26).
First, in claims of constructive discharge, the administrators had questionable
performances in their respective jobs. The administrators were not particularly good at multiple
aspects of their job and were in most instances not deserving of the role based on the case
history.
Second, a connection existed between the interpersonal skills of the administrator in
relation to constructive discharge claims. Administrators who seemingly could not get along with
superiors possessed a perception that their situation was unbearable. Administrators’ failure to
get along well with their superiors led to employment actions that most misconstrued as a
constructive discharge that led to unsuccessful litigative pursuits.
Discrimination. The issue inherent to all of the discrimination claims was the
documented poor performance of the administrator in their job. Sadly, race and gender
discrimination claims were seemingly thrown about in adverse employment action cases that
involved an administrator from a protected class that had a documented poor performance
record. A distinction did exist between the race and gender claim issues.
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