Gilbertson v. McAlister, Civ. No. H-74-19.
| Citation | 403 F. Supp. 1 |
| Decision Date | 04 November 1975 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. H-74-19. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut |
| Parties | Mary GILBERTSON v. Scott McALISTER et al. |
Bruce C. Mayor, Hartford, Conn., for plaintiff.
Albert G. Murphy, Hartford, Conn., for defendant members of Hartford Board of Education.
Ralph C. Dixon, Day, Berry & Howard, Hartford, Conn., for defendants McAlister, Fox, Sanchez, Buckley, Kenny, Rubera and Martin (in their individual capacities).
Joseph W. Lemega, Thomas J. Hagarty, Halloran, Sage, Phelon and Hagarty, Hartford, Conn., for defendants Kelly and Macy.
In this civil rights action, the plaintiff, Mary Gilbertson, a former tenured English teacher at Weaver High School in Hartford, seeks injunctive relief, reinstatement, back pay and damages against the defendants who include most of the elected members of the Hartford Board of Education, the Superintendent of Schools, and the Chairman of the Hartford Court of Common Council. Jurisdiction of this Court is premised upon 28 U.S.C. § 1343 for the two causes of action which are set forth in the complaint pursuant to the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
In the first count of her lengthy complaint, Ms. Gilbertson contends that the defendants, acting in their official capacities, wrongfully discharged her as a teacher in violation of her rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The second count charges that the individual defendants acted maliciously and with deliberate intent to deprive the plaintiff of her constitutional rights to freedom of speech, due process of law, and equal protection of laws. On October 17, 1974, this Court denied the plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment. Thereafter a court trial was held at which 19 witnesses testified; in addition, comprehensive trial briefs have been filed by the parties.
The record discloses that, for some time prior to November, 1973, the Hartford community, the Court of Common Council of Hartford (the City of Hartford's governing body), and education officials of the City were deeply concerned over the unrest and potentially explosive situation that existed at Weaver High School, a school located in the west end of the City consisting of predominately black students. The atmosphere at the school was continually punctuated by disruptive behavior by the students, false fire alarms, fist fights, extreme truancy, interracial disturbances, and confrontations among students, teachers and administrators. Officials further became disturbed and alarmed when on divers days in October certain leaflets, prepared by an organization called the Revolutionary Youth Movement, were distributed to students and teachers at Weaver High School. These materials denounced several employees in the Hartford educational system and criticized the Work Study Program, a school project which enabled students to work at part-time jobs during school hours.
It was clearly established at trial that Ms. Gilbertson participated in the circulation of these leaflets at the school; indeed, in her complaint, par. 4, she admits that during the month of October, she and other individuals "distributed in the immediate vicinity of Weaver High School, leaflets, prepared by others of a partisan nature." In addition, she concedes that "she placed copies of a press release issued by the United States Labor Pary (sic) on a table in the faculty lounge" of the school and that these materials were "sharply critical of certain school programs and employees of the defendants."
One leaflet focused on the principal of Weaver High School, Stewart Street, stating, among other things, that Mr. Street 1) imposed a "CIA-style reign of terror" at the school, where "cop cars ring the school, bluecoats invade the halls and cafaterias (sic) on the slightest pretext, and over 100 students have been illegally suspended or expelled;" 2) established a "terrified student body, easily regimented for slave labor;" 3) refused to reinstate an expelled militant student "even after a court ordered him to do so;" and 4) used "military riotcontrol gas" against demonstrating students when he was principal of a school in Camden, New Jersey, in 1972. (Ex. 5).
It is uncontroverted that these allegations against Mr. Street were false and made with a reckless disregard for the truth in all respects.
Another leaflet urged the students to "smash" the "work-study program" which, according to the article, was a plan of the "millionaire insurance executives and bankers of this city" to destroy the Hartford public schools and to force students into "slave-labor" jobs. (Ex. 8). An additional leaflet urged Weaver students to "organize their teachers on behalf of the Mary Gilbertson campaign for Weaver school representative of the Hartford Federation of Teachers." (Ex. 6).
On October 22, 1973, the Hartford Court of Common Council, noting its displeasure with the dissemination of certain literature to students at Weaver High School by "left wing activists groups" and "a teacher" at the school (presumably the plaintiff), passed a resolution calling for "an immediate investigation of the situation at Weaver High School which will include determining the causes of current unrest; who is fomenting current unrest; what legal sanctions may be instituted against those responsible, including any Board of Education employees who may be involved." (Ex. 3, p. 2316).
Upon learning of the resolution passed by the Council, Superintendent of Schools, defendant Kelly, telephoned defendant Martin, the chairman of the Council, and informed him that the resolution was "out of order" and was an "interference" with his work as Superintendent. However, Mr. Kelly did decide to order an investigation into the trouble at Weaver and instructed Principal Street and defendant Macy to look into the matter.
As a consequence, Mr. Street requested that Ms. Gilbertson report to his office on October 23, 1973. Ms. Gilbertson stated that she would appear only if a witness were permitted to accompany her. Thereupon Mr. Street ordered her to attend the meeting with him, stating that, after they had an initial conference, he would allow her to call in a witness. When she again refused to come to his office, Mr. Street informed her that he considered her refusal to be an act of insubordination. Despite this warning, Ms. Gilbertson failed to appear at Mr. Street's office.
On November 2, 1973, defendant Kelly suspended Ms. Gilbertson without pay and discharged her from employment effective February 4, 1974. In effect, she was terminated as a teacher for "misconduct." Specifically, the Superintendent's notice enumerated six reasons for the action which may be summarized as follows:
Pursuant to the Teachers' Tenure Act, Hartford City Charter, App. 8 § 9, Ms. Gilbertson appealed the Superintendent's decision to the Hartford Board of Education. Full evidentiary hearings were conducted over a period of four days at which the plaintiff was represented by counsel, numerous witnesses were called and extensively cross-examined, and several exhibits were introduced. This Court has carefully reviewed the 1,000-page transcript of the proceedings before the Board.
On January 4, 1974, the Board upheld the plaintiff's dismissal by a vote of six to two on the ground that the Superintendent's charge of "misconduct" (one of the three grounds in the City Charter, Appendix 8, Section 8 under which a teacher may be dismissed) was proved. This action followed. At trial, six members of the Board testified that in their opinion Ms. Gilbertson was guilty of Charges I, II, and III; in addition, four of these six members believed one or more of the remaining charges had been proven to their satisfaction.
The plaintiff first contends that the charges against her were too trivial and insubstantial to warrant her dismissal from employment. She argues that "(e)ven if it is considered insubordination to refuse to go to the principal's office . . . and even if it is a violation of school policy to hand out three leaflets in the faculty parking lot . . and even if by giving them out it is tantamount to unprofessional conduct," she could not be discharged for "misconduct." However, as will be discussed, infra, it is the opinion of the Court that the proven charges against the plaintiff, either individually or collectively, were sufficient to justify the plaintiff's termination as a teacher. Moreover, the plaintiff's reliance on Fisher v. Snyder, 476 F.2d 375 (8 Cir. 1973) and Johnson v. Branch, 364 F.2d 177 (4 Cir. 1966) (en banc), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 1003, 87 S.Ct. 706, 17 L.Ed.2d 542 (1967), is misplaced.
In Fisher, the plaintiff, a middle-aged divorcee, was dismissed by the school board for "conduct unbecoming a teacher" because she allowed men on several occasions to stay in her apartment overnight. The district court ordered reinstatement and the decision was affirmed on appeal. Both courts concluded that there was "no proof of improper conduct" but, at most, the evidence only raised a question of Mrs. Fisher's good judgment "in her personal affairs." 476 F.2d at 378. In Johnson, the Court of Appeals found that the plaintiff's discharge was race-inspired and that the school board acted arbitrarily and...
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