Teacher at center of governor’s race
Evers, Walker battle over pornography case
MADISON - His name is Andrew Harris. He’s a science teacher in Middleton. And he’s in the middle of the biggest debate of the governor’s race.
Voters are weighing whether to give Gov. Scott Walker a third term or replace him with State schools Superintendent Tony Evers while also trying to make sense of a convoluted case involving the teacher who looked at pornography at school nearly a decade ago.
The race for governor is only a week old. But already both sides are flooding television screens, radio airwaves and Facebook timelines of potential voters with snippets of a saga that the Middleton-Cross Plains School District wants to put behind it.
Here’s some background:
Harris, the former vice president of the district’s teachers union, was caught looking at pornographic material at school along with six of his colleagues in 2010. Until then, he had not had any disciplinary issues.
The district employees’ email and internet activity were discovered after a female colleague of Harris complained to supervisors in 2009 after Harris showed her a photo of a woman’s genitalia — prompting a districtwide investigation. District officials handed down discipline ranging from a reprimand to Harris’ termination.
Harris appealed the firing because his discipline was harsher than others’ who were caught looking at similar material and argued he was targeted because of his union activity.
The arbitrator ultimately ruled Harris should be given a suspension rather than be fired because the other employees were given lesser punishments for “doing the same or similar types of things,” according to the arbitrator’s report.
Harris was reinstated in 2014 after Evers decided he could not take away Harris’ license because state law at the time of the offenses did not allow him to because students were not exposed to the pornography — a requirement that was removed in 2011 after Republicans passed a bill with Evers’ support.
The case has emerged as the central attack against Evers by Walker at a time when the school district just wants to move on.
Claims vs. context
What you’ll hear: Middleton-Cross Plains School District science teacher Andrew Harris looked at pornography at school.
What you need to know: A school district investigation revealed Harris was one of seven teachers in the district who looked at pornographic material at school during the workday. District investigators found 23 emails sent to Harris from Harris’ sister that included pornographic photos, jokes and movies, according to a 2010 district report.
The other teachers investigated also received and shared emails, images and jokes containing pornographic material.
What you’ll hear: Tony Evers could (or couldn’t) have revoked Andrew Harris’ teaching license.
What you need to know: Harris looked at the pornography over a span of about a year until a fellow teacher complained in 2009. At that time, the Department of Public Instruction could begin a process to revoke licenses of teachers who engaged in “immoral conduct,” which was defined then as “conduct or behavior that is contrary to commonly accepted moral or ethical standards and that endangers the health, safety, welfare, or education of any pupil.”
The argument between Walker and
Evers hinges on those last 12 words.
Evers says he couldn’t have revoked Harris’ license because the law at the time of the offense required DPI to prove Harris had put students in danger. While Harris looked at the pornographic material at school, he didn’t look at it during classes and students never saw it.
Walker asked Evers to do so in 2014 and now says Evers is relying on a bureaucratic reasoning and should have revoked the license anyway and let the courts decide if Harris had appealed.
The arbitrator who ruled in favor of Harris returning to the classroom said because no students were exposed to the material and because Harris deleted all emails he received that contained the pornographic material, there was no risk of students stumbling upon the pornography.
What you’ll hear: Tony Evers worked to change state law in response to the Andrew Harris case.
What you need to know: A group of Republican lawmakers introduced a bill to change the definition of “immoral conduct” in 2011 to allow a teaching license to be revoked in any situation involving a teacher looking at pornography at school, regardless of whether students saw it.
GOP Rep. Steve Kestell, who authored the bill, said DPI did not push the bill and said it was the Middleton-Cross Plains School District officials who contacted lawmakers.
But emails provided to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from the DPI show its legislative liaison, Jennifer Kammerud, discussed the legislation with Kestell as it was being drafted.
DPI officials also testified at hearings in favor of the legislation, praising the fact that the department would no longer have to prove that looking at pornography endangers children in order to pursue revocation.
What you’ll hear: Scott Walker told Tony Evers to revoke Harris’ license
What you need to know: Not at first. While it’s true Walker ultimately wrote a letter to Evers saying he believes Evers had the authority to revoke Harris’ license — thereby implying Walker would support Evers in a legal challenge — Walker first said the matter was best left up to the Middleton-Cross Plains School Board.
When a parent of students in the district wrote a letter to Walker in 2014 asking him to intervene, a Walker aide told the parent to contact School Board members.
The aide also told the parent that the issue was “decided in the courts” when two judges upheld an arbitrator’s decision to give Harris his job back, leaving it out of Walker’s jurisdiction.
Walker then switched gears and sent a letter to Evers after the Wisconsin State Journal published a story on Walker’s aide’s advice and after Walker’s deputy press secretary om a Facebook post voiced concerns that her daughter may end up getting Harris as a teacher during the upcoming school year.