March 4, 2020 12:15a
(WGTD)---A veteran teacher won a battle against Kenosha Unified administration Tuesday night following a rare, open-to-the-public termination hearing.
The district had sought to fire Prairie Lane Elementary special education teacher Sherry Johnson for her handling of an incident last fall in which a six-year-old student suffered a melt-down in the school cafeteria. But the school board, deliberating privately, reconvened in open session to hand Johnson a victory. Instead of termination, the board voted unanimously to allow Johnson to resign and receive a neutral letter of recommendation. Her attorney said too much history had passed for her to want to stay in the district.
About 30 teachers and staff who were in the audience for the four-hour long hearing applauded. An emotional and relieved Johnson hugged her supporters.
At the center of the district's case was a video which showed Johnson escorting the student at a brisk pace down a hallway following the cafeteria disturbance. But interpretations varied. While administration sought to portray Johnson as angrily dragging the boy down the hall, Johnson said she was acting in a strategic manner by being firm and by having her hand on his shirt collar while quickly guiding the boy back to her classroom.
H-R staffer Maxceen Augustus handled the case for the district. She didn't buy Johnson's explanation, and said she never considered a recommendation other than termination, even though Johnson had a clean record, save for a write-up by the principal for a dress code violation.
Augustus, who has a special needs child herself, found the video to be very disturbing. "If it was my child I would have a big problem with that. We're supposed to be able to trust the adults that we leave our kids with," Augustus said as her voice cracked with emotion.
In her testimony, Johnson accused two staff members, with whom she'd had disagreements in the past, of looking for reasons to bad-mouth her. "They were waiting for me to mess up at any point in time," she said.
One of the two--another special education teacher--saw the hallway incident in person and testified during Tuesday night's proceeding. Instead of offering to help, the teacher went to the principal and filed a complaint. Months earlier, the teacher purportedly had tried to hug Johnson following a closed-door session between the two that was held to resolve differences. When she refused the hug, things started to spiral downhill even faster, she claimed.
About a week after the hallway incident, Johnson was told by the principal to report to human resources. "When I walked into that HR office, it was the worst experience ever," Johnson said holding back tears. "I have never been accused of anything. My heart was beating out of my chest. I couldn't make sense of anything that was happening because I would absolutely never harm any of my students." Her first viewing of the video came during that meeting. She said she initially couldn't place it.
In addition to staff from Prairie Lane, Johnson's supporters included teachers from an earlier post at Grewenow Elementary. A couple of staff members testified that Johnson was a caring, patient and innovative teacher who helped the student in question make tremendous progress in working to overcome verbal, social and mobility issues.
Tuesday's hearing was held in public at Johnson's request. Such hearings are usually held in executive session. Johnson's attorney said his client wanted her supporters to be able to demonstrate their support to the school board.
Board members voted without comment.
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