The case involves Joseph Quigley, a longtime English teacher at Northwest Classen High School. Quigley was fired in May for willful neglect of duty, repeated negligence, instructional ineffectiveness and other reasons.
The school board upheld his firing, and he appealed in Oklahoma County District Court. Last month, a judge ordered Quigley reinstated. --snip--
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From Oklahoman:
"Quigley's case is somewhat complicated by the fact that he's gay and has long been an advocate of a more succinct discrimination and bullying policy that specifically covers sexual orientation. Inevitably, that history is intertwined with questions about his teaching performance."
From Judge Swinton:
"And all I have with regard to the end of year or end of instruction testing is that his students did well"
"And I can't find that anything that he wished to show his students would have harmed them in any way or done anything more than help educate them in the curriculum that Mr. Quigley was assigned."
"There have been emails sent during instruction time, but no one's brought me any evidence that has caused a lack of learning in his classroom if it, in fact, happened."
"to criticize a teacher and try to take his job away for not following a policy that he gets faulted whether he uses it or doesn't use it does not appear to be a good use of the district's time."
"If the problems had remained the same with a different evaluator that had not made up her mind, this case would have been completely different, but the school district chose not to do that."
And last but not least--
"So I believe it's obvious from the parts of this case that I have just commented on that I find that in no way has the district met their burden of proof."
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