Teacher put on administrative leave due to phone usage

Status
Not open for further replies.

alicia320

New Member
I have been a teacher for 10 years and have never seen or heard of this before. I have recently been put on administrative leave for too many phone calls out and into my office phone over a period of 2 months. I was asked to resign due to too many calls, and I was never offered union representation nor legal representation when I was spoken to by the principal and the superintendent of human resources. I also had never been told the rules of the district phone system and was unaware that every time I made a call it was to 10 cents per call. This is just an overview, and I will now describe what happened in detail.

I taught fifth grade in a different state for 8 years and just moved to this state in August of 2007. I acquired a job teaching ESL to elementary school students K-6. I do not have tenure as of yet, because it takes 3 years in this school district to become tenured. Anyway, I piloted a program this year for my students that were newcomers in order for them to learn English more effectively, and it was accepted and embraced by the school district. Let me begin by saying that my husband and I do not have cell phones, so we communicate through our office phones usually during our lunches and breaks during the day. Most of those times they are just messages left on each others voice mail. We had some extreme circumstances hit us in January and we had to leave messages for each other more than normal between the months of January and March. Also, my phone in my office has always rung during the daytime, and if I were in there I would of course answer it. I was unaware that the phone was not supposed to ring because nobody ever told me that it wasn't.

One day at the end of March, the phone had just rung and it happened to be my realtor. I had one student in the room at the time and I was attempting to get off the phone with him, when my principal walked in. She sat down with my student and I proceeded to get off the phone with the realtor. I apologized to my principal and told her the phone had just rung and I was trying to end the conversation. The principal did not believe me that the phone had rung down there and proceeded to argue with me. She thought I had called out during my student time. So she had the secretary call me on her cell phone to see if the phone rang, and sure enough it did. They then had that problem quickly resolved and had them shut off my ringer. I was very grateful for that because I was tired of being interrupted by different phone calls throughout the morning. I only had students in my office for 2 hours a day and the rest of the time we were in the cafeteria for class.

So, later that morning my principal then called me into the office and gave me a letter that stated I was not to be on the phone during instructional time and that it would be kept on file at the school only as a warning. I was still not told that it cost 10 cents per minute per call.

After this, I never used the phone except once during lunch usually and then after school. 3 weeks later, I go to work like normal and my principal grabbed me before I got my kids. She tells me that the human resource superintendent wants to speak with me. I walk in and he has a stack of papers in front of him, then proceeds to tell me that I made a lot of phone calls between January and March on my phone in my office. I said, okay? Not understanding what he was getting at. He then proceeded to tell me that I committed fraud against the district for using the phone for personal gain and that 90% of the calls were incoming and outgoing to my husband's work. He told me that I committed fraud because it was 10 cents per minute and it cost the district money. Of course, I never knew that and I stated so. They then proceeded to tell me that they wanted me to resign that day and that if I chose not to resign they would take me to civil court and sue me for the charges, (which I had already stated I would pay with no problem), and my name would be dragged through the papers and I would probably not get a job again. I had no offer of union representation (I am a member) nor legal counsel, just a simple, resign or we sue you.

I of course freaked out because this is my entire career and I love what I do. So I told them I would not do anything without calling my husband and he came and told them I would not be resigning and we would have our lawyer look into this. So they told me I would be on administrative leave until things were resolved. We then went home and I called the union rep and told him what had happened. He told us to write a narrative about everything and we would meet with him on a Monday. We did so, and when we met with him, he seemed to think that the whole thing they were accusing me of was ridiculous and they would soon see the error of their ways.
One thing I wanted to point out is that the directive given to me by the principal was on March 30, and the phone records they pulled were from January 4-March 14, BEFORE the directive was ever given to me.

So here I sit 2 1/2 weeks later with no resolve to the issue. My name just came up at the Board meeting this past Monday night so I would be approved for administrative leave. The local newspaper was there and of course asked why I was being put on administrative leave and the human resource guy stated that an investigation was ongoing. So it makes it sound like I have done something horrible to kids or something. This statement was in the paper yesterday.

When I talked to my union rep he just says that we have to wait to see what their next move is going to be and there is nothing we can do right now. I don't know if I believe that because I feel that I have been unjustly targeted because my principal doesn't like me for some reason. I wanted to know that if there is any way at some point that I could take the human resource superintendent and the principal to civil court to sue for mental diress and unfair practices, once this whole thing is over. I have been mentally scarred by this whole thing and feel like I have had my reputation tarnished. I even had an article in another local paper, written about the work I do with these kids and how it is revolutionary, it came out right before this whole thing happened. This is part of the reason I feel that I have been targeted. Also, the superintendent of human resources was not aware of the letter the principal gave me until my union rep told him about it. So how can they justify forcing me to resign based on something I did before the directive was given to me? Once I was given the directive, I followed it to a tee and did not once violate that directive. Don't they have to look at those records after the directive was given to me before they can send me to the wolves? The whole thing makes no sense. In the beginning it made me question my teaching, but I am an excellent teacher and have proven it over and over throughout my career. I care about my kids and what I do and I would never knowingly do anything to jeapordize my career. Please answer my questions about this and give me your take on the situation. Thank you.

By the way, the cannot terminate me or choose to nonrenew me because I was already offered a contract for next year in March and I signed, sealed and delivered it right away. This is why they are having such difficulty with "getting me out".
 
Last edited:
I have been a teacher for 10 years and have never seen or heard of this before. I have recently been put on administrative leave for too many phone calls out and into my office phone over a period of 2 months. I was asked to resign due to too many calls, and I was never offered union representation nor legal representation when I was spoken to by the principal and the superintendent of human resources. I also had never been told the rules of the district phone system and was unaware that every time I made a call it was to 10 cents per call. This is just an overview, and I will now describe what happened in detail.

When I talked to my union rep he just says that we have to wait to see what their next move is going to be and there is nothing we can do right now. I don't know if I believe that because I feel that I have been unjustly targeted because my principal doesn't like me for some reason. I wanted to know that if there is any way at some point that I could take the human resource superintendent and the principal to civil court to sue for mental diress and unfair practices, once this whole thing is over. I have been mentally scarred by this whole thing and feel like I have had my reputation tarnished.
By the way, the cannot terminate me or choose to nonrenew me because I was already offered a contract for next year in March and I signed, sealed and delivered it right away. This is why they are having such difficulty with "getting me out".

I did not read any thing in between basically your union rep is correct he as to go through the grievance procedure up to arbitration. You have a good case under weigarten, if you requested your union steward and where denied. As far as a court action, courts tend to look at these things as contractual violations and the remedy is arbitration laid out in the contract. You can run it by an attorney certainly, basically you are looking at reinstatement with back pay tops if the union prevails at arbitration. They may settle sooner to get you your job back without back pay.
 
First off, let me tell you that they CAN terminate you, as long as they have cause. Fraud is certainly one justifiable cause. Abuse of instructional time is another. Your contract can be found null and void if you have violated any of its terms or committed an illegal act.

I'm sorry, but it sounds as though you did abuse instructional time. You say that you make calls during your lunch and after work. However, you also stated that you made many more calls during the January-March time period. I have to infer that you were calling during instructional time. If your district has proof that you did make phone calls during instructional time, then they have a decent chance at termination IMO. It doesn't really matter that you weren't previously warned.

You don't say why you need to contact your husband so frequently throughout the day, but the reasons for your calls may also be a factor.

There's one more clarification. A tenured teacher could just as easily face the same thing you're facing. Tenure only prevents a teacher from being dismissed without cause.
 
Irish I know you are a teacher and I am not, this still should work its way up to an arbitrator shouldn't it?
 
I suppose it could, but I don't think she has much of a chance of avoiding a termination if the district follows through. If she did ask for union representation, then Weingarten might give her some protection, but I don't think she requested it. She said they didn't offer it.

The bottom line is that if she abused instructional time, or used the district phone for inappropriate reasons, then the district is legally entitled to terminate (at least by most state education codes). It's not really a contractual issue at this point.

The fact that the district is alleging fraud makes me wonder if the phone calls had something to do with a side business.
 
There is more to it than just Weingarten (which could give a possible violation to the NLRB for review) when it hits an arbitration panel or arbitrator. Since this a school I am assuming there will be a panel. An arbitrator will scrutinize all evidence given to him in a case that is presented.

These are the following seven for a just cause termination.

(1) Notice

Has the employee been warned of the consequences of his actions? Simply put,the employer must have a previously established set of work rules or Code of Business Conduct that has been reviewed with the employee. There should be documentation on file in the employees personnel folder that clearly indicates the date said rules were covered and that the employee was advised of the consequences for failure to comply with those rules.
The poster claims she was never notified of the rule.


(2) Reasonable set of rules.

Was the rule or order given to the employee a reasonable request?
The employer's rules must have relevance to the stated goals of the corporation as well as the employees individual objectives.
Maybe, maybe not.


(3) Investigation

There must complete a thorough investigation in an attempt to gather all the facts surrounding the case. This can include everything from interviewing employees, customers, suppliers and any other potential witnesses to documents, photos, and even videotapes made by surveillance systems. The burden of proof is solely on the employer.
Maybe, maybe not.


(4) Fair Investigation.

The investigation must be inclusive to the employees rights of representation by the Union. At the same time it must observe the employee's rights under due process.The investigation should be completed in a timely manner and remain objective without rushing to judgment before obtaining all the relevant facts.
Maybe, maybe not.


(5) Proof of the offense.

Has your investigation produced substantial evidence to prove guilt in the employees actions? The evidence must be substantial enough to support the conclusions of the employees guilt to the particular offense.
I am sure the employer has that.


(6) Equality

Have the rules or orders been handed out evenly and without discrimination? All employees must be operating under the same set of rules or orders. Selective application of the rules will not support a case.
Maybe, maybe not.


(7) Issuing Appropriate discipline.

Did the punishment fit the crime.The level of discipline issued must be directly related to the severity of the violation.Other things must be taken into account as well such as the employees length of service and service record. It is a well accepted fact that the use of progressive discipline be used.
According to the poster she is a stellar performer with 10 years long and faithful service without incident. I doubt that rises to the level of termination if it is true.

Firing a a Union employee is not as simple as it is in the "at-will" world. This also illustrates a very compelling reason why every American should form or join a union.
 
Last edited:
OP has only worked in her current district for 2 years. Also, education law in most states allows termination due to behavior that affects or risks district operations. If her phone calls impeded instruction, then they affected her job performance, and subsequently affected the district.

She can certainly pursue this, but I doubt that she will have a favorable outcome.
 
First of all, the phone calls were not made during instructional time. I am a pull-out teacher so I have many times in between students that a 1 minute message call could be made. Second, I do not have a side business and there were no calls made for "personal gain". I was never told about the phone charges to call out of the district phone nor was I ever told that my phone was not supposed to ring. My office is a former bathroom in the basement with toilets and sewer gas issues and I choose to not be down there as much as possible. If calls came in when I had a student in the room, it was not more than a minute or two that I would be on the phone. Teachers text during the school day all of the time. I have seen them, during class while their students are working. If I had a cell phone I wouldn't do that because that would be during instructional time. The only thing that makes this different is that I had phone calls on the district phone and they do it through their personal cell phones. Do you know how many minutes per day the calls came out to? 29 minutes! That is it, my lunch alone is 35 minutes. Any calls made were done when students weren't in the room and it never once affected my teaching time because I do not teach in a regular classroom. Some days students didn't even come to me due to assemblies or something else. My union rep has told me that he has never seen a case like this and thinks it is insane that they are pursuing it. Unfortunately it comes down to a vendetta against me by the principal who happens to not like me. I have had excellent performance over the 2 years I have been here and have even started a pilot program to help my students, and it has been highly successful. We believe part of the problem could be the working conditions where my office is because there is a pending lawsuit from another teacher based on the work conditions in the basement. If they get rid of me, then I cannot testify because I will be considered a disgruntled employee. We have mold, constant standing water when it rains, sewage backup, and sewer gas at times down there, and they do expect us to take kids down there as well.
 
Last edited:
Interesting case keep us informed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top