The Ohio Supreme Court recently ruled on the Freshwater v. Mt. Vernon City School District Board of Education case (Slip Opinion No. 2013-Ohio-5000). In its decision, the court upheld the termination of Freshwater’s teaching contract based on his insubordination for refusing to remove religious materials from the classroom.
In June 2008, the school board passed a resolution of its “intent to consider the termination” of Freshwater’s teaching contract. The resolution described the grounds for Freshwater’s termination, including failing to remove religious materials from the classroom and imposing his personal religious beliefs into his teachings after repeatedly being told not to do so.
Freshwater requested a public hearing in accordance with Ohio Revised Code Section (RC) 3319.16. The referee found that the board terminated Freshwater’s contract for good and just cause. The board adopted the referee’s report and determined that Freshwater’s failure to follow the established curriculum and his disobedience of instructions and orders from his superiors amounted to good and just cause to terminate his employment contract.
Freshwater filed suit in the Knox County Common Pleas Court appealing his termination. The trial court affirmed the board’s decision and Freshwater appealed. On appeal, Freshwater alleged that the trial court abused its discretion in determining that there was “clear and convincing evidence” for good and just cause to support his termination.
The court of appeals affirmed the trial court’s ruling and found that it did not abuse its discretion. The court stated that good and just cause is defined as a fairly serious matter and noted that the referee determined that “Freshwater’s repeated violation of the U.S. Constitution and repeated acts in defiance of direct instructions and orders of his superiors both constituted a fairly serious matter. As a result, Freshwater made a discretionary appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, which was accepted.
Ultimately, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the board had good and just cause to terminate Freshwater’s contract. The decision, issued on November 19, 2013, found that when dealing with a termination issued under RC 3319.16, “good and just cause does include insubordination that consists of a willful disobedience of, or refusal to obey, a reasonable and valid rule, regulation or order issued by a school board or by an administrative superior.”
The court found that Freshwater continuously ignored and defied the district’s orders by displaying religious materials, including the Oxford Bible and Jesus of Nazareth, in his classroom. In addition, Freshwater refused to remove his personal Bible from his desk and also refused to remove a poster of former President George W. Bush and Colin Powell and others in prayer from his classroom wall. The court stated that district orders must be considered reasonable and valid to amount to insubordination.
The board contended that the display of Freshwater’s personal Bible on his desk violated the Establishment Clause. However, the court found that the First Amendment protected the display of the personal Bible and did not threaten the Establishment Clause. The district’s order for Freshwater to remove the Bible from his desk was neither reasonable nor valid because this alone would not amount to insubordination or grounds for his termination.
Additionally, the court considered Freshwater’s refusal to remove the Oxford Bible, Jesus of Nazareth and the poster depicting George W. Bush and Colin Powell as insubordination because those orders were reasonable, valid and did not violate the First Amendment. While working in the district, as noted by the court, Freshwater could not ignore “direct, lawful, edicts of his superiors.” As a result, the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed the ruling of the court of appeals and upheld Freshwater’s termination based on insubordination.
For a copy of the case, please visit www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2013/2013-ohio-5000.pdf. If you have general questions about the case, please contact OSBA’s division of legal services
Posted by Candice Christon on 1/10/2014