The Supreme Court sided with a fired Oark school administrator and found that the Jasper School District ran afoul of state law in its 2011 decision to fire her.
In a Thursday opinion, the Supreme Court upheld a finding by Johnson County Circuit Judge William Pearson that Anita Cooper’s termination violated the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act. The court also upheld the $64,998 awarded to her after the lower court’s May 2013 ruling.
Cooper, a longtime employee and principal in Oark, filed a grievance with the Jasper School District, arguing that the school was denied the right to develop a master class schedule at Oark and that she was then written up by the district’s assistant superintendent, Wanda Mann.
Cooper was stripped of her position and transferred to a school in Kingston, where she was to oversee in-school suspensions. She was eventually fired in November 2011.
In circuit court, Cooper contended that the district failed to follow the due process procedures set forth in the teacher dismissal law.
In its appeal, the Jasper School District argued that it wasn’t required to follow some procedures because Cooper was a principal.
The Supreme Court found that Cooper was a teacher under state law and that the lower court did not err in its ruling.