Williams v. Hyde County Board of Education, 73-1863.
| Decision Date | 28 January 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 73-1863.,73-1863. |
| Parties | Daniel W. WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. The HYDE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, a public body corporate of Hyde County, North Carolina and Richard O. Singletary, Superintendent of the Hyde County Board of Education Public Schools, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Charles L. Becton, Charlotte (J. LeVonne Chambers, Chambers, Stein, Ferguson & Lanning, Charlotte, on brief), for appellant.
Edward N. Rodman, Washington, N. C. (Rodman, Rodman & Archie, Washington, N. C., on brief), for appellees.
Before HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge, BRYAN, Senior Circuit Judge, and FIELD, Circuit Judge.
Summary judgment went for the School Board in this action by a nontenured high school teacher whose contract was not renewed for the 1971-72 school year. He is a black male, and he alleged that the nonrenewal of his contract was because of his race. He further claims that he was entitled to an adversary hearing before the School Board on the Board's decision of whether or not his contract should be renewed.
On appeal, he contends there was a material issue of fact stemming from his claim that his race was, at least, one of the motivating reasons for his release. He founds his claim upon his bare assertion that his race was the reason for his release, his testimony that he had been told by the school superintendent that the superintendent would get rid of him because of his involvement with the black teachers association and because of his claim that the adverse information accumulated in his personnel file was false and a pretext for his termination.
The depositions of most of the potential witnesses were taken. Though summary judgment was entered, it is apparent on the record now what much of the testimony would be if there were a trial on the merits. There are disputes about some of the adverse information in the file. He was tardy in the submission of certain reports, for instance, and he and the school principal are diametrically in disagreement as to whether or not he had the prior permission of the principal to be late. There are, however, uncontroverted facts which negate the substance of the plaintiff's claim.
On this record it is uncontroverted that at the end of the preceding school year, in the late spring of 1971, the black principal of his school recommended that the plaintiff's contract be not renewed. Nevertheless, the School Board did renew his contract, but it wrote him a special letter stating that his re-employment was conditioned upon his elevating his performance in certain designated areas. The letter was a clear warning of probationary status.
The plaintiff began the next school year, 1970-71, by not showing up. When he did come in, he explained that he had not received the letter informing him of the date of the school opening, but the letter had not been received by him because he was not at his regular address to receive it and he had made no inquiry about the school opening date.
Later in the year, in the presence of his class, he applied a cane to the backside of nine of his pupils, two of whom were girls. The school principal promptly investigated the incident. The plaintiff denies that he lifted the skirts of the girls when administering corporal punishment to them, and he denies that the pupils told the principal that he was lying when he denied that he had lifted the skirts of the girls, but there is no denial of all of the other essential facts of the incident.
The spanking incident was investigated by the Advisory Council to the School Board. The Council is biracial and the investigators were three white adults and two black adults. At the conclusion of their investigation, they sent a letter to the plaintiff reprimanding him for what he had done.
In the Spring of 1971, the Advisory Council recommended to the School Board that it not renew the plaintiff's contract. Two of the four members of the Council who made the recommendation were...
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...1973). This is not a case of the discharge of a white public official by an all-black board. See Williams v. Hyde County Board of Education, 490 F.2d 1231, 1233 (4th Cir. 1974) (per curiam). The Jail Board was bi-racial in composition with four white members and three black members. Moreove......
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