More current and former teachers explained a pattern of administrative "bullying" and discrimination on Wednesday at a gender and age discrimination trial against Jefferson City Public Schools.
Laura Cooper, a former JCHS teacher also suing the district for discrimination, continued her testimony from Tuesday regarding several encounters with assistant principal Jeff West and David Wilson where she felt scared or intimidated.
She had also heard former principal Jeff Dodson make several remarks about needing to "get rid of" the veteran teachers.
In 2013, she overheard a conversation between Karen Ray - who filed the lawsuit - and Dodson, in which she heard Ray say to him, "You have a lot of veteran teachers who have given their life (to teaching)."
And he responded with, "I've still got a lot of old dead weight around I need to get rid of. I can pay two (new) teachers for the price of one (veteran) teacher."
Cooper said there have been several instances when she's felt fearful of West, one when he came into her classroom while she was alone. He confronted her about reporting students who were recklessly driving their cars at each other in the school parking lot while students were standing on the hoods of the cars.
In her testimony, she said West pulled down decorations in her classroom from her 50th birthday celebration, crumpled and threw them away and said, "Don't do that again, it makes us look bad," of her reporting the students' driving in the parking lot.
She became so fearful of West she asked to be placed under a different supervisor, and she was. But she was still under his supervision in the global studies academy. She broke out into hives during the first academies meeting and called in sick to the other meetings to avoid seeing him, she said in her testimony.
After the May 2013 incident where Ray was yelled at by Wilson and West, Cooper said she was "chased" by Wilson into another teacher's classroom. She talked with Ray the day after the incident, and Cooper saw Wilson pacing up and down the hallway of her classroom. When Cooper exited her classroom, he walked briskly after her and followed her into another teacher's classroom. She said he left when he saw the other teacher was there.
Cooper met with the district's human resources director, Penney Rector, and reported Dodson's discriminatory remarks about older teachers and talked about the "bullying and intimidation" from the administration.
On Cooper's second encounter with Rector, she said Rector stuck her finger in her face and told her she was "engaged in illegal behavior" by seeking outside legal counsel. She told Cooper she needed to file a grievance.
Cooper did not file a grievance, but the district conducted an investigation and found there was no wrongdoing. She could have filed an appeal with the superintendent and the Board of Education but did not. Cooper said she did not trust Rector or the grievance process, which is why she decided to hire an attorney.
Former teacher Mary Ellen Laden said she also had negative experiences with the administration, including one time when she was told she was no longer going to teach dual-enrollment classes because she was "too traditional."
The younger teacher who took her classes was given technology Laden did not receive. When she asked why she wasn't given an iPad or interactive projector, Dodson told her, "We're going to give technology to teachers who will take us into the future."
She said she felt like the veteran teachers were not backed by administration when discipline issues arose in their classrooms, but she said the younger teachers had administration's support. There were times she was questioned by the principals for referring a student to their office for bad behavior, and they didn't seem to believe the situations had occurred. She said younger teachers were told the older teachers were "negative" and to "stay away from them."
Her treatment at the district with Dodson and the assistant principals was partly why she retired in 2013.
Current high school teacher Beth Miller testified she has also experienced Dodson yelling reprimands at her. She described the environment as "dark, dreary and toxic," and it hasn't gotten much better.
The only time Dodson didn't come off as "antagonistic" was when she was helping him with statistics for his doctorate theory work, she said.
Current teacher Jennifer Milne said the climate was one reason why she transferred to Jefferson City Academic Center. But, she said she did not have a bad experience with Dodson personally.
She did, however, see Ray after she was yelled at by Wilson and West in the hallway in 2013. Milne said she didn't witness or hear the incident but saw Ray crying afterward.
"Karen's not an emotional person, so I was alarmed," she said.
David Ganey, who teaches at the high school, also saw Ray that day; he was concerned and decided to write an anonymous letter to the school board members.
His letter states, "After what I've seen today, I can't sit idly by and let highly qualified teachers be bullied. It's disrespectful for them (the principals) to pull her out of her classroom and within earshot of students is inexcusable."
In his testimony, Ganey said he thinks he was retaliated against after administrators found out he wrote the letter, and he was evaluated more than other teachers. He said he struggled to keep the classes he taught and didn't get an iPad when they were first handed out.
Ganey said he cannot prove the letter caused those actions.
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Previous coverage:
JCHS administration called 'agressive', May 11, 2016
JCPS discrimination trial gets underway, May 10, 2016