Tennessee Supreme Court Upholds Termination of Tenured Teacher
Thursday, January 26th, 2017
Recently, Tennessee’s Supreme Court upheld a school’s termination of a tenured teacher. The teacher was terminated for low teaching skill and failure to control her classes. Tennessee law provides that tenured teachers are entitled to a hearing (essentially a trial) before their local school board within 30 days of termination. In this case, the hearing did not happen until almost a year later. After the hearing, the school board voted to terminate the teacher.
The teacher argued that the termination was invalid because she did not receive her hearing within the 30 days as required by law. But the Supreme Court disagreed. The teacher’s problem is that she did not object to the delay during her hearing before the school board. Had she objected to the delay while it was happening, the school board could have fixed the problem. Instead, the teacher waited until after the school board had made its decision to complain about the delay. By waiting too long to object, the teacher waived her objection.
If you are a teacher that has been dismissed, suspended, or is facing other legal issues, the attorneys at Stone & Hinds have the knowledge and experience to help ensure that your rights are protected. Contact us today.