Teacher loses job for helping student newspaper

Published 10:54 pm Wednesday, November 14, 2007

EVERETT — A Cascade High School teacher has been fired by the Everett School District for helping students publish an underground newspaper with district equipment and on school time.

Superintendent Carol Whitehead outlined her decision in a three-page Nov. 2 letter to Kay Powers, according to district records.

Powers, an English and journalism teacher, was placed on administrative leave June 1 for her role in students’ use of school equipment to put out the Free Stehekin newspaper.

She has appealed the decision and asked a hearing officer review the case in public.

“I hope I get my job back,” Powers said Wednesday. “I’m missing teaching. This is the first time since I was 5 years old I didn’t start school in September.”

Powers, who has taught at Cascade for 22 years, declined to discuss the specific charges against her.

“The specifics are going to come out in the open hearing,” Powers said. “Obviously, I’m confident or I wouldn’t be asking for an open hearing.”

No date has been set on the hearing. Attorneys representing Powers and the district will have to agree on a hearing officer first, said Mary Waggoner, a school district spokeswoman.

The district hired a Seattle attorney, Caroline Lacey, to conduct an independent investigation in spring.

Whitehead listed the findings from the report in the letter of dismissal. They included:

n Students and Powers in February were told not to use school resources for independent publications.

n Powers was told the newspaper must be published outside school hours, away from school property and without the use of school equipment, materials or software.

n Powers violated district policies and the superintendent’s directives, helped students violate the policies, allowed a student to skip classes to work on the nonschool publication and mishandled money collected by students of the newspaper.

n She drove students in her car without parental permission and left students in her classroom unsupervised after school and on evenings and weekends.

n Powers didn’t cooperate with the district’s investigation and she violated terms of her administrative leave by communicating with students.

“Each of these reasons, individually and collectively, constitutes a cause for termination of your employment,” Whitehead wrote. “Your conduct constitutes a material breach of your duties and obligations as a teacher and has no positive educational aspect or legitimate professional purpose.”

Union officials said the punishment is too harsh.

“I just think the superintendent’s decision clearly lacks proportionality,” said Mike Wartelle, a regional union representative.

Whitehead said Wednesday there is little more she can say beyond what’s in her letter and the investigative reports.

“My job is to protect students,” she said.

The Everett School District earlier this year settled a lawsuit with two former Everett High School student editors filed in 2005 after administrators demanded to review each issue of that school’s student newspaper, The Kodak, before publication.

After that, students at Everett and Cascade high schools published newspapers off school grounds. Cascade High’s student arts and literary magazine, Tyro, also went underground. Powers was adviser of the school- sanctioned Stehekin and Tyro before the lawsuit.

The last issue of the Free Stehekin came out May 24.

In it, Powers is credited for taking a photo of a napping student that was published alongside a story about senioritis.

David Whittemore, a junior last year, was managing editor of the Free Stehekin when he was caught using a Cascade computer to download files from his e-mail account onto a personal laptop. That incident and “a significant number of unexcused absences” over a two-year period were cited when Whittemore was suspended in spring and later denied admission to Cascade for the current school year. Whittemore lives outside the district boundaries and made a special request to attend Cascade.

After a closed hearing between the teen and Whitehead, the Everett School Board decided to let Whittemore return for his senior year under several conditions, including restrictions on his use of school computers and attendance guidelines.

Powers remains hopeful she’ll get to return as well.

“The union has stood by me,” she said. “I feel good. The kids I have worked with and the teachers who are my friends have been so good to me.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339- 3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.