Struble v. Blytheville School District

2017 Ark. App. 99, 516 S.W.3d 269, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 111
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 22, 2017
DocketCV-16-319
StatusPublished

This text of 2017 Ark. App. 99 (Struble v. Blytheville School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Struble v. Blytheville School District, 2017 Ark. App. 99, 516 S.W.3d 269, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 111 (Ark. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

BART F. VIRDEN, Judge

| iVeda Ann Struble appeals an order from the Mississippi County Circuit Court upholding the Blytheville School District’s decision to terminate her contract under the Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act (ATFDA) and granting summary judgment to Blytheville School District. We find no error, and we affirm.

I. Facts

In the spring of 2012, Wesley Freemeyer, a second-grade teacher at Blytheville Primary School, discovered a handwritten letter in the homework folder of a female student in her classroom. In the letter, the student stated that she wished she could see her real mom, that her mother’s father touched her where she should not be touched, that she had been touched in her “middle parts,” that her mom’s dad was a bad man, and that she had some very bad things in her life. The note ended with the request “can you help me please.” Freem-eyer gave the note to assistant principal Dee Keiter, who was also present in the Rclassroom. Keiter mentioned the letter to Principal Struble, who admits that she “scanned” the letter but did not read it at that time, and all parties agree that Keiter was told to “handle it.” Keiter took the letter and escorted the child back to the office where the child’s grandmother was waiting to pick her up because the child had been suspended from school for fighting earlier in the day. Keiter asked the grandmother about the letter, and Keiter testified that the grandmother explained that the abuse had occurred years before when the child was a toddler and that the child had been removed from the abusive household. Later that day, Struble and Keiter met in the vice principal’s office, where Struble read the letter and discussed its contents with Keiter, and Keiter relayed to Struble that the child’s grandmother had confirmed that the child had been abused. Struble told Keiter to file the letter in the school nurse’s file. Both Keiter and Struble were aware that no one had called the child-abuse hotline, and they agreed that there was “no reason to report abuse to the hotline.”

A few weeks later, Rhonda Hodges, the school nurse, found the letter on the counter in the medicine closet, a room that is kept locked and to which only the nurse, the assistant principal, and the principal had keys. Nurse Hodges read the letter and became concerned. She spoke to a supervisor, Freemeyer, and Keiter to ascertain if anyone had called the Child-abuse hotline. When Hodges realized that no one had reported the letter, she called the hotline herself.

Richard Atwill, Blytheville School District’s superintendent, investigated the incident. On May 18, 2012, Atwill notified Struble that she was immediately suspended with pay and that he was recommending termination for her failure to report suspected |achild abuse, because she had represented to Freemeyer that she would call the hotline and did not do so, and because she failed to maintain the chain of custody of the child’s letter.

On June 18, 2012, the Blytheville School Board (School Board) held a hearing on the matter. After hearing testimony from Superintendent Atwill, Nurse Hodges, Freemeyer, and Assistant Principal Keiter, the School Board found that the reasons set forth by Atwill to terminate Struble’s contract were true. The School Board terminated Struble from her position as principal and directed that she be rehired in a non-administrative position as soon as a position for which she was qualified became available.

Struble appealed the School Board’s decision to the circuit court. The School Board filed a motion for summary judgment, which the circuit court granted. The circuit court found that the School Board was entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law, as there was just and reasonable cause for Struble’s termination based on her violation of the Mandated Reporter Statute, her failure to maintain a proper chain of custody of the letter, and her delegation of duty as a mandated reporter.

Struble filed a timely notice of appeal.

II. Points on Appeal

A. Standard of Review

This matter is here as an appeal from summary judgment. The relevant facts are undisputed, and what remains is a question of law: whether the School Board complied with the ATFDA when it terminated Struble’s contract. Summary judgment is to be granted by the circuit court only when there are no genuine issues of material fact to be litigated, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Killian v. Gibson, 2012 Ark. App. 299, at 6, 423 S.W.3d 98, 101. In reviewing a grant of summary judgment, an appellate court determines if summary judgment was appropriate based on whether the evidentiary items presented by the moving party in support of the motion left a material question of fact unanswered. Id. This court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion for summary judgment was filed and resolves all doubts and inferences against the moving party. Id.

When the proof supporting a motion for summary judgment is sufficient, the opposing party must meet proof with proof, and the failure to do so leaves the uncontro-verted facts supporting the motion accepted as true for purposes of the motion. See Inge v. Walker, 70 Ark. App. 114, 15 S.W.3d 348 (2000). In response to a motion for summary judgment, the supporting material must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue of material fact for trial. Mount Olive Water Ass’n v. City of Fayetteville, 313 Ark. 606, 856 S.W.2d 864 (1993).

We recognize a “shifting burden” in summary-judgment motions, in that while the moving party has the burden of proving that it is entitled to summary judgment, once it has done so, the burden then shifts to the nonmoving party to show that material questions of fact remain. See Ford v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 339 Ark. 434, 5 S.W.3d 460 (1999). When the movant makes a prima facie showing of entitlement to a summary judgment, the respondent must discard the shielding cloak of formal allegations and meet proof with proof by showing a genuine issue as to a material fact. Hughes W. World v. Westmoor Mfg., 269 Ark. 300, 601 S.W.2d 826 (1980).

IeB. The Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act

Under the ATFDA a teacher may be terminated during the term of his or her contract for a material neglect of duty or other just and reasonable cause. See Ark. Code Ann. § 6-17-1507(a)(Repl. 2013). A teacher who receives a notice of recommended termination or nonrenewal may file a written request with the directors of the school district for a hearing. See Ark. Code Ann. § 6-17-1509. A.

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Related

Mount Olive Water Ass'n v. City of Fayetteville
856 S.W.2d 864 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1993)
Hughes Western World, Inc. v. Westmoor Manufacturing Co.
601 S.W.2d 826 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1980)
Flentje v. First Nat. Bank of Wynne
11 S.W.3d 531 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2000)
Inge v. Walker
15 S.W.3d 348 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2000)
Ford v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance
5 S.W.3d 460 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1999)
Killian v. Gibson
423 S.W.3d 98 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2012)

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Bluebook (online)
2017 Ark. App. 99, 516 S.W.3d 269, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/struble-v-blytheville-school-district-arkctapp-2017.