Katherine Sayre
A St. Tammany Parish junior high teacher who was fired for displaying controversial student political cartoons -- including a portrait of President Obama with what some people interpreted as a bullet hole in his head -- has sued the school system on claims that he was treated unfairly and his rights under the teachers' collective bargaining agreement were violated.
Robert Duncan, 52, taught social studies at Boyet Junior High School in Slidell for about 13 years until he was put on administrative leave in February 2012 and officially fired six months later. A parent who walked onto campus without permission that February took photos of the posters displayed in a hallway, including a portrait of the president with a circle on his right temple, and sent the images to news media.
In August, Duncan appealed his dismissal in front of a three-person panel in a procedure newly established under state education reforms. After listening to several days of testimony, the panel upheld seven of the 20 charges against Duncan, according to the lawsuit. Folse, who had the final authority, then confirmed Duncan's termination.
Last month, Duncan filed a lawsuit in St. Tammany Parish District Court, naming the School Board, the superintendent and several administrators. The lawsuit seeks to have Duncan's job restored along with lost salary and benefits.
A spokeswoman for the St. Tammany Parish school system declined to comment Tuesday, saying administrators are not allowed to speak about "personnel matters."
In the lawsuit, Duncan's lawyer claims that school administrators conspired "to remove Mr. Duncan permanently as a teacher from the school system due to the negative publicity created by the media after it learned of the posters." The school's principal, Mitchell Stubbs, initially found Duncan not guilty in the matter, according to the lawsuit.
Charles Branton, Duncan's lawyer, called his client's firing a "witch hunt."
"Mr. Duncan had a spotless record," Branton said.
The lawsuit also argues that Duncan wasn't given proper notice of the charges against him or reasons why disciplinary action was being considered, as required by the teachers' collective bargaining agreement.
Before Gov. Bobby Jindal's education reforms were signed into law, Duncan would have had his appeal case heard in front of the full, 15-member School Board. Last week, a judge in Baton Rouge overturned the new law, ruling it unconstitutional. It wasn't immediately clear how that ruling would impact Duncan's pending case. In the lawsuit, Duncan claims that the new procedures were put into place in July 2012, which means Duncan's case should have proceeded under the previous system.
During the hearing last year, the School Board's lawyer pointed to several student political cartoons to argue that the images, at the least, were often inappropriate, and Duncan strayed from the required curriculum governing the assignment. According to the lawsuit, a total of 141 students turned in posters, and 39 of them were put on display.
One poster showed a drawing of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck standing next to a tree with a sign that reads "Obama season" underneath Obama's face. Another had Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney jousting and hurling threats at one another. One student drew Sarah Palin, riding an elephant and clutching an AK-47.
But the poster that drew the sharpest criticism was the picture of Obama with the circular mark on his right temple, which some people said seemed to invoke violence against the president.
According to the School Board's lawyer, the student who drew the picture said she accidentally made the mark with her marker, and after she turned it in, she asked Duncan not to display it. In response, Duncan's legal team argued that there are two different marks on the picture of Obama: a brown smudge that would indicate the accidental mark and a more defined, green circle, both on the president's head.
Duncan testified he never saw the green mark, and if he had seen such a mark, he would have reported it to the principal and kept it from being on display. His lawyers contended that the mark was added later, after Duncan had graded it.
In Folse's initial decision, he ruled that Duncan was dishonest and made incompetent decisions.
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