Tim Cox Reports Me To the U of W

It was getting close to 4:30 and Justice Martin had already extended our hearing almost an extra half hour. I was desperately trying to convince him that I had enough evidence of malice to go to trial against Principal Skull and Mr. Tram. So far, the judge seemed to be giving credibility to their story that in acting to kick me out of the practicum, they had been motivated solely by legitimate concern for the welfare of their students. In their affidavits, they had listed three serious concerns on which the Principal had found it necessary to take immediate action:

1. My refusal to provide lesson plans, resulting in no progress made in the curriculum.

2. My aggresive and confrontational demeanor towards staff and students.

3. My defiant attitude and refusal to follow instructions.

I told the Judge that he shouldn't believe these accusations, and I thought had some pretty good evidence which tended to show that they were cooked up to provide an excuse to get rid of me. I'll tell you about that evidence another time; but in any event, the Judge was a hard sell. My main was that no matter what they claimed about having serious concerns, they still couldn't answer two questions:

1. Why had they kept these concerns secret from me for two weeks before suddenly springing them on me they day they kicked me out? That they had done so was unchallenged.

2. Why had they moved for an immediate expedited removal (as permitted by Page 28 of the Handbook) instead of going through the normal Due Process procedures as listed on Page 27, thereby depriving me of the opportunity to even respond to the accusations against me? That they had done so was also unchallenged by any evidence.

On the basis of these circumstances, I argued that "a finder of fact could reasonably infer the existence of malice." But now my time was almost up, and I knew there was one more thing I needed to say, if only I could flip through my notes and find it....

Ah, yes. The Cox transcripts! I was kicked out on a Monday morning, but it seems the previous Friday the vice principal had spoken to the Director of Student Teaching, Deb Woloshyn, and Deb had taken notes of their conversation. The judge appeared interested: just what was in those notes? Here is how Deb recalled their discussion:

• The practicum is not going smoothly for Marty
• Marty says he has 3 professors who have brought up non-Academic disobedience charges
• This week Marty asked the VP if a homeless guy can come watch him teach -wanted him to have an opportunity to see what he could be. Tim said no. Marty interrupted Tim's conversation with someone else to make this request.
• The Cooperating Teacher (CT) in Calculus has said that Marty's teaching is not to standard. Students are upset. Students are not getting it. Marty is all over the board.
• Gordon Bell encourages its student teachers to observe in many classrooms, which Marty has done. The CT's have said that Marty is asking uncomfortable questions. The CT's have asked if they can have Marty work in the library until the Faculty Supervisor arrives (Nov. 22).
• CT's have been documenting
• Tim questions whether Marty has been coming and going from the building on his practicum day as he saw him coming in at 9:30 one morning
• Tim has concerns of mental health. If Marty were a regular staff member, the3 Admin would be concerned
• Our Faculty Supervisor will be at the school early next week to assist with concerns.

This is what they were saying about me on a Friday, and on the next Monday they kicked me out of school. But you should notice something a little peculiar about all this. On Friday, there was not a word about lesson plans, or aggressive confrontational behavior, or refusal to follow orders. According to Mr. Cox, I was leaving the building to go for coffee, and asking uncomfortable questions. And there was something about a homeless man. Those were his complaints.

But on Monday morning they had a completely different set of complaints. Were they not, I asked the judge, simply pulling things out of thin air wherever they thought they could find something to make me look bad?

The Judge appeared to be thinking long and hard about that as I sat down.