Fired teacher loses appeal

Former Fayetteville debate coach sought to reverse 2013 dismissal

LITTLE ROCK — A veteran debate coach at a Northwest Arkansas high school lost an appeal aimed at reversing his 2013 dismissal.

Fired for several reasons, chief of which was insubordination, Fayetteville High School teacher Timothy Hollis sued, unsuccessfully arguing his ouster broke state law.

On Wednesday, the Arkansas Court of Appeals upheld Washington County Circuit Court Judge Doug Martin’s decision to grant a summary judgment in favor of the district.

Judge Raymond Abramson wrote the opinion for the three-judge panel.

Timothy Hollis, had been a speech and debate coach for 25 years at Fayetteville High School, but problems developed after he objected to changes in the district’s policy on teacher development days.

The educator, 64, was an elected faculty representative on the district’s Personnel Policy Committee in 2012 when the district redesigned its professional development programs.

The district set two specific days for professional development for the purpose of training staff on new curriculum standards and also required employees to use an online system for scheduling professional development days instead of using a paper form.

But Hollis saw the step by administrators as a breach of a teacher’s contract because it “deprived teachers of their ability to take [professional development days] of their choosing,” according to court records.

On May 3, 2012, Hollis sent a districtwide email to teachers and told them to use the old paper form instead of using the new online system and attached an updated version of the older form.

Hollis was reprimanded by the district’s superintendent, Vicki Thomas, in a letter warning him he might be fired if he didn’t apologize.

The debate instructor responded by e-mailing his faculty supervisor, accusing the school’s principal of being a “bully” who harassed female teachers and a “henchman” for the district’s administration.

He then “compared himself to the William Wallace

character and Thomas to the ‘Longshanks’ character from the movie Braveheart,” according to Abramson’s opinion.

Wallace, portrayed in the film by Mel Gibson, was a warrior who fought for Scottish independence against the forces of England’s King Edward I, also known as “Longshanks.”

Hollis received additional written reprimands in the following weeks, but didn’t apologize or back down. Eventually, he was ordered to enter an anger management program and to stay off the campus.

On June 29, Hollis was notified his dismissal would be recommended.

In February 2013, the Fayetteville School Board unanimously voted to fire Hollis, agreeing he was insubordinate, falsified a district document, inappropriately used district email and allowed his teaching license to expire during a suspension.

In May 2013, Hollis sued, arguing his dismissal broke the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act and there was no “just and reasonable cause” for firing him.

Hollis argued there were genuine questions of “fact” that should have been considered by a jury instead of being tossed by the judge.

The Court of Appeals found Hollis “was not terminated because he disagreed with the new [policy]. Rather, he was terminated because of his insubordination and activities that undermined the administration’s efforts to implement the common core standards,” Abramson wrote.

The court ultimately rejected claims made by Hollis his contract was violated during the firing process and also found despite Hollis’ contention, there was no conspiracy among administrators that led to his termination.

Hollis