Jury Splits Its Decision in Teacher’s Lawsuit

By Rita Robinson

A jury awarded retired science and biology teacher Barbara Joan McKnight $50,000 in damages against the Laguna Beach Unified School District last week for disclosing private facts, and denied two other claims against the district for unlawful retaliation and defamation of character.

Both sides claim last Wednesday’s verdict in Orange County Superior Court a victory.

McKnight sued the school district on Aug. 5, 2011, over an incident at Laguna Beach High School.

“An Orange County jury found that her former employer, the Laguna Beach Unified School District, violated McKnight’s right to privacy back in December of 2010 by allowing a confidential claim that she had come to school under the influence of alcohol to be leaked, turning what should have been a private personnel matter into a public one,” McKnight’s attorney, James Guziak of Anaheim, said in a statement.

The incident occurred on a Friday and McKnight was given a temporary unpaid leave of absence effective that day. By Monday, rumors “about her being discharged for coming to work drunk were being spread among LBHS staff and students, causing McKnight great embarrassment and distress, and damaging her reputation,” the lawsuit stated.

“We’re of the opinion that that information was disclosed by either Miss McKnight and/or her friends,” school district attorney Dan Spradlin said this week. “She was not given a specific directive to keep the information confidential and that would be something that, in the future, would occur. We just assumed that she would and others would, but apparently there needs to be a more specific directive in that regard.”

At a school board meeting the following month, a notice of unprofessional conduct was released publicly and placed in her personnel file.

Derogatory information is not placed in a teacher’s personnel file until the teacher knows about the notice and is given an opportunity to review it, said Linda Barker, president of Laguna Beach Unified Teachers’ Association. The district’s policy regarding rules of conduct aligns with the California education code, she said.

Disclosing why McKnight was sent home was an intentional “litigation tactic” by the district and an attempt at “undermining her reputation and preventing her from getting support from her community and colleagues,” said Howard Hills, a critic of the district’s administration and McKnight supporter.

Hills questioned the fiscal responsibility of defending the district’s actions in court rather than settling the case with McKnight earlier.  “The superintendent was lead accuser and witness against McKnight in court, but the school board failed to require that she recuse herself from decision-making about a settlement or use of school district resources in a nonproductive court case,” said Hills. “This was not about public-school best interests, it was retaliation against a highly professional teacher near the end of a distinguished career who dared to demand simple fairness,” he said.

Board members and district administrators did not disclose information about McKnight, LBUSD Supt. Sherine Smith said in an interview this week, adding that the circumstances of the case will result in more formally reminding staff to keep personnel information confidential.

McKnight returned to the classroom on Jan. 5, 2011, and retired at the end of the school year in 2014. On the day in question, according to the lawsuit, she came to school late because she slept poorly due to unsettling family issues.

Reached this week, Mike McKnight, her husband, declined comment, deferring to Guziak, his wife’s attorney. Guziak declined to discuss the case beyond a statement. McKnight was not represented by the teachers’ union “because she chose to seek private counsel,” said Barker, the union president.

Asking McKnight to take a sobriety test was one way the district disclosed private facts to the public, the lawsuit alleged. There was “no ‘reasonable suspicion’ of alcohol impairment to justify a request that McKnight submit to alcohol testing,” the lawsuit said.

Five adults at school that day smelled alcohol on McKnight’s breath, Smith said in an interview, including the campus supervisor who covered McKnight’s class until she arrived. Other teachers said they did not smell alcohol. “If there’s an odor, it’s assumed that you’re under the influence to some degree,” said Smith. That’s enough to justify a letter of reprimand in an employee’s personnel file for unprofessional conduct, she said. The odor on McKnight’s breath was due to eating garlic-laden tabouleh the night before, her husband said earlier

The suit alleged that the district “presumed” McKnight was inebriated without proof because she refused to submit to a sobriety test. She refused because she distrusted administrators, according to the lawsuit, which cited past conflicts with former high school principal Don Austin and assistant principal Bob Billinger over her advocacy for an anti-bullying program in support of gay students.

“I feel grateful that the jury understood there was no retaliation or defamation and that, as a district, we will not tolerate retaliation. There was no animosity,” said Smith, referring to the two allegations rejected by the jury.

Both parties will meet with Judge Andrew Banks to discuss litigations costs, said LBUSD board member Ketta Brown. Brown predicted that McKnight’s award will cover her own court costs since the jury awarded one count to her and the rest to the district. “It’ll be a wash,” Brown said. An insurer picks up the costs of defending the school district, Smith said.

As superintendent, Smith defended the district’s position in the case, which is normal protocol, said board president Jan Vickers. “That’s how the attorneys directed the case to be handled,” she said. “The lawsuit is against the district and the superintendent represents the district.”