Johnson v. United School District Joint School Board

191 A.2d 897, 201 Pa. Super. 375
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 13, 1963
DocketAppeal, No. 4
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 191 A.2d 897 (Johnson v. United School District Joint School Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. United School District Joint School Board, 191 A.2d 897, 201 Pa. Super. 375 (Pa. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

Opinion by

Woodside, J.,

This is an appeal by a school district from a judgment entered on the pleadings in favor of a school teacher for salary during a period when she was not teaching because she had been notified that she had been dismissed.

The facts must be gathered exclusively from the complaint and answer, which constitute the record upon which the judgment was entered. The plaintiff admits for the purposes of her motion for judgment on the pleadings the truth of all the defendant’s allegations and the untruth of any of her allegations which have been denied by the defendant. 1 Standard Pennsylvania Practice, p. 252, §1034(b)-1, Goodrich-Amram; Cary v. Lower Merion School District, 362 Pa. 310, 312, 66 A. 2d 762 (1949).

The facts thus determined are as follows: The plaintiff, Martha Perry Johnson, was employed by the United School District Joint School Board in Indiana County at $4000 a year under a “Temporary Contract for Professional Employe”. The plaintiff was told when interviewed, again at a teacher’s meeting the day before the student’s school term opened, and on at least one subsequent date that she was to attend “Open House.” The reference is to the evening when the parents may come to the school attended by their children, talk with the teachers and examine the work of the students. It is an important part of the school program. Prior to the holding of open house, the plaintiff advised her administrative superior that she would not attend. She was told by the defendant that “she was required to attend”. Without giving any reason, she again said that she would not attend. She did not attend open house, going instead with her husband to Pittsburgh as a chaperon for children of a school in which her husband taught.

[378]*378By letter dated December 21, 1961, she was notified that as of that date she was dismissed as a temporary professional employe of the district. The reason for dismissal was given as “insubordination and lack of cooperation”. The following day the plaintiff by letter requested a hearing. As it was mailed during the Christmas vacation, the letter was not received by the defendant until January. A hearing was then set for February 7, 1962, when the plaintiff and her attorney appeared before the board but refused to participate in the hearing. A subsequent request by the plaintiff for another hearing was granted and, after several postponements, a hearing was held on May 14, 1962, when the board of the school district ratified the dismissal action of December 21, 1961.

Following her dismissal on December 21, 1961, the plaintiff did not hold herself out as ready and willing to continue in the employ of the defendant, did not present herself at the United Joint High School to undertake her duties, and has made no request to return to work at any time since December 21, 1961.1

The court below concluded that the teacher was “indiscreet” in refusing to attend open house, but that her refusal was not sufficient cause to bring about her dismissal. We think this was error.

. Public schools are operated for the students and not for the officers and employes. All of the many dedicated teachers of this Commonwealth live by this tenet. It has been recognized in many cases as a basic principle of law.

“The fundamental public policy, expressed in the Constitution and underlying school laws, is to obtain a better education for the children of the Commonwealth.” Walker’s Appeal, 332 Pa. 488, 491, 2 A. 2d [379]*379770 (1938), Commonwealth ex rel. v. Sunbury School District, 335 Pa. 6, 11, 6 A. 2d 279 (1939). It was the intention of the legislature to subordinate all other considerations to this policy. Walker v. Scranton School District, 338 Pa. 104, 110, 12 A. 2d 46 (1940). The teacher tenure provisions must be considered in the light of this fundamental public policy. Swick v. Tarentum Borough School District, 141 Pa. Superior Ct. 246, 251, 14 A. 2d 898 (1940).

The open house is a significant part of the school program. Many busy parents give high priority to attending school that evening, often setting aside pressing social, business and community engagements. They meet their children’s teachers, discuss their children’s special problems and develop a spirit of cooperation and understanding with the teachers, all for the purpose of advancing the education of their children. Good teachers, sometimes accepting the annoyance of a few unreasonable parents, appreciate the opportunity which the open house gives them to explain the school program to the parents and to learn more about their pupils. The refusal, without cause, of a new teacher to participate in this program sets a bad example for the students, is an annoyance to the faithful teachers who always participate, is embarrassing to the school officials who are called upon to explain her absence, and disappointing, if not outright disgusting, to the parents and relatives who have made personal sacrifices to be there. Any school teacher who lacks an understanding of her responsibility to be present on this occasion and who arrogantly refuses to obey the direction of her employer to be there and instead follows her own personal whims and pleasures can properly be held by the board employing her to be unfit to continue in the employment of that board. The plaintiff here has demonstrated a lack of “respect for the glorious traditions of the teaching profession.” See Kaplan v. Philadelphia School District, 388 Pa. 213, 223, 130 A. 2d 672 (1957).

[380]*380It is established that a school teacher may be dismissed because of insubordination and lack of frankness in refusing to answer questions of his administrative superior bearing upon his loyalty. Board of Public Education, Philadelphia v. Soler, 406 Pa. 168, 176 A. 2d 653 (1961).

As stated by Mr. Justice Musmanno in his inimitable language, “How can a school system be operated with any degree of efficiency, order and success if school teachers do not show respect toward the Superintendent of the school, the man who has the responsibility of maintaining order? How can children be expected to show respect toward their teachers if they learn that the teachers themselves are disrespectful to their superiors? ... No large organization can survive without orderly procedure and gradation of responsibility. Discipline is required not only in the military. It is indispensable in every establishment in civilization if anarchy and catastrophe are to be avoided .... What would happen to all organized society if government employees could close their eyes to directives which control the intermeshing of the vast complicated gears of governmental machinery?” Board of Public Education, Philadelphia v. August, 406 Pa. 229, 250, 251, 177 A. 2d 809 (1962). The plaintiff here not only closed her eyes to a directive, but arrogantly persisted in her announced intention not to comply with the directive. This conduct was an act of negligence and would also be classified as persistent and wilful violation of the school laws. Ganaposki’s Case, 332 Pa. 550, 555, 2 A. 2d 742 (1938) ; Ambridge Borough School District v. Snyder, 346 Pa. 103, 108, 29 A. 2d 34 (1942); Commonwealth ex rel. Wesenberg v. Bethlehem School District, 148 Pa. Superior Ct. 250, 256, 24 A. 2d 673 (1942). The teachers tenure provisions do not create a term longer than good behavior. Teachers’ Tenure Act Cases, 329 Pa. 213, 230, 197 A. 344 (1938).

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Bluebook (online)
191 A.2d 897, 201 Pa. Super. 375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-united-school-district-joint-school-board-pasuperct-1963.