Fired Teacher Suing City To Get Job Back

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Friday, July 29, 2011

Dan McGowan, GoLocalProv News Contributor

A half-decade long battle between a former teacher and the city of Providence could reach its conclusion in September, GoLocalProv has learned.

Bernard McCrink, who taught mathematics and coached track at Mount Pleasant High until May of the 2005/06 school year before he was placed on paid suspension and then terminated by the Providence School Board the following September, is suing the city in order to return to work and collect the wages that he would have received over the past five years.

McCrink was fired after the School Board determined he had failed to notify the school of his absence or to leave written material for a substitute teacher on May 16, 2006. The Board claims it had the right to terminate him based on a laundry list of prior disciplinary issues and claims over the course of his tenure at the school, which include using a racial slur in class, a student visiting explicit websites on his computer and accusations that he bribed his students.

But sources close to McCrink say the school and the School Department began a “witch hunt” following his 2006 suspension, digging up every claim ever made against the teacher in an attempt to have him removed permanently.

Allegations: Slurs/Porn/Bribes/Exotic Dancing

McCrink, who was known as an outspoken critic of both Mount Pleasant and the School Department, has had several serious allegations made against him since he started teaching at the school in 1993. In one instance in the ‘90s, he allegedly used the word “nigger” in class, for which he received a letter of reprimand. This claim also appears in a 2009 ruling by Education Commissioner Deborah Gist to uphold his termination.

In another instance, the School Board claimed that McCrink failed to provide “adequate supervision of computer use in his classroom, with the result that a student accessed pornography during his Algebra II class,” according to the 2009 report. The School Department also hired an “expert” to analyze McCrink’s hard drive and the expert found that pornography had been accessed on three separate dates under his computer account.

In the 2009 ruling to uphold the termination, the School Board also claimed that McCrink may have used language that suggested he would take bribes from students in exchange for good grades: “Although there was no evidence that Mr. McCrink actually solicited bribes from students in return for passing grades or excuses from class, the district argues that there is evidence that he would ‘joke’ with students about doing so,” the report states. “The Appellant testified that he would joke with students that they would need a lot of money in order to pay for a passing grade unless they ‘got their act together’ and stopped ‘goofing up.’”

In a final instance of what could be viewed as inappropriate conversation with students, McCrink allegedly “would tell ‘funny stories’ involving a friend of his who had been ‘in the porn business’ at one time." McCrink maintained, and two witnesses verified, that he had warned against exotic dancing being a good career choice.

McCrink’s Side Of The Story

The lawyer representing McCrink, State Representative John DeSimone, did not wish to comment for this story. But speaking on the condition of anonymity, a source close to McCrink said the School Board had acted on “fabricated information that was 100 percent totally false.”

In the 2009 report, McCrink offered his response to all of the allegations made against him. DeSimone argued that his dismissal was “beset by procedural flaws” and filled with unsupported allegations.

On the pornography incident: “The School Board’s computer forensics expert was given a directive to inspect the computer’s hard disc and locate pornographic activity during the times that Mr. McCrink was teaching in his classroom,” McCrink’s side argued. “He was able to identify only one student who had accessed pornography, and although he concluded that the student had accessed pornographic material during Mr. McCrink’s fourth-period class, this was the result of a mistake he made in calculating the time.”

The alleged bribery was also unsubstantiated, DeSimone said in the 2009 report. The source close to McCrink called the incident a “joke that happens with every teacher in every classroom all the time.”

As far as the exotic dancing comment, “Mr. McCrink and two students did testify that when the subject of exotic dancing came up, it was raised by a student or students, and Mr. McCrink merely discouraged the notion of getting involved in such activity,” the report said.

Commissioner Upheld School Board Decision

In the end, Commissioner Gist upheld the School Board’s decision to terminate McCrink, but it wasn’t because of the alleged indecent incidents the School Board detailed.

“As indicated in our Findings of Relevant Facts, the School Board has proven that on May 16, 2006 Mr. McCrink failed to report his absence or provide written materials for a substitute teacher,” the ruling stated. “The Board did not meet its burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence the other grounds on which it had sustained Mr. McCrink’s dismissal.”

The decision goes on to suggest that that School Board had “good and just” reasons to fire McCrink. Gist ruled that his conduct disrupted the educational environment at the school and that he failed to provide written material for substitutes when he was out of work.

The source close to McCrink says the teacher had an episode related to an ongoing heart ailment preceding his alleged failed call out on May 16, 2009. But the report said his explanation for failing to call out on was “implausible.”

Judge Will Likely Make Decision In September

Following the decision, McCrink chose to take his case to Superior Court. In the nearly two years that has followed, the case has been assigned to three different judges and has stalled on numerous occasions.

On July 6, the matter was assigned to Judge Susan McGuirl for decision. It is now being analyzed by law clerks before a ruling is rendered sometime in September.

For McCrink, that means another school year will begin with him not in a classroom.

 

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