The Arkansas Court of Appeals sided with a deceased special education teacher in his wrongful termination case against the Little Rock School District in an opinion released Wednesday.
The opinion by Court of Appeals Judge Cindy Thyer upholds a ruling from a Pulaski County circuit judge who sided with the teacher in his wrongful termination case.
Charles Parliment, a special education teacher at Hall High School, filed a breach of contract claim against the Little Rock School District in 2020 after he was fired following an incident at the school.
The district fired Parliment for failing to properly supervise an incident at the high school where a group of female students uploaded a video of a student "twerking" in a class Parliment was supervising. Parliment argued he tried to stop the incident, including repeatedly telling the students to sit down, pounding the table, using his "mean voice" and asking a student to find a security guard or administrator to help quell the situation, according to the opinion.
Parliment was unaware the students were dancing and recording a video, saying the students intentionally blocked his view by forming a circle around the dancing student. When confronted by a school administrator, Parliment said he was unaware of the video and was placed on paid administrative leave. The school district later fired Parliment for failing to properly supervise the students.
But after a bench trial, a Pulaski County Circuit Court judge sided with Parliment, holding that his actions were not a breach of his employment contract. The judge ordered the district pay Parliment $54,719 in damages, plus court costs. The school district appealed the decision.
In her opinion Wednesday, Thyer said she agreed with the lower court ruling, stating "Parliment took reasonable steps to address the situation."
"Considering the foregoing, the circuit court did not err in finding that Parliment's actions did not constitute a material breach of his employment contract and that the school failed to follow established District policy," Thyer wrote.
Parliment died in a June 2022 shooting at the age of 75, according to a report from KARK.