Teacher Matt Theobald should keep his job with Martin County schools, his attorney argued in a July 13 response to the School Board, which for months has been trying to fire Theobald.
Theobald, a veteran Martin County teacher, has been on suspension for Facebook comments he posted following the Sept. 10 killing of conservative icon Charlie Kirk. Kirk, he wrote, was a “racist, misogynistic, fear-mongering, xenophobic neo-Nazi.”
Kirk was the founder of the youth organization Turning Point USA, which Theobald compared a Hitler youth organization. Kirk, 31, was shot and killed at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Following the post, the School Board on Sept. 12 stripped Theobald of his teaching duties at Spectrum Academy in Stuart and the School Board voted Oct. 7 to suspend him without pay and fire him.
But Theobald requested a hearing before the state Division of Administrative Hearings to challenge the suspension and termination. Following the April 2 hearing before Administrative Law Judge Jodi-Ann Livingstone, the judge recommended Theobald keep his job and be paid back pay and benefits.
Back and forth concluded
Theobald and the School Board each now has responded to Livingstone’s recommendation. It’s now up to the School Board to make a final decision. The board has yet to set a meeting to consider the matter.
“The facts of this case do not justify disregarding the progressive discipline provisions of the (collective bargaining agreement) or imposing the ultimate sanction of termination,” Livingstone wrote in her recommendation.
Theobald’s attorney Martin Powell said Livingstone’s statement “is based on competent and substantial evidence and cannot … be disregarded because it does not align with the (School Board’s) desired outcome.”
Competent substantial evidence, Powell wrote, is evidence that is “sufficiently relevant and material that a reasonable mind would accept it as adequate to support” a conclusion.
And, he added, the School Board cannot disregard Livingstone’s recommendation because the board believes Livingstone “could have found competent and substantial evidence to agree with their position had (Livingstone) weighed the evidence or credibility differently.”
School district officials declined to comment. Neither Powell nor School Board attorney Anthony Gonzales could be reached for comment.
School Board’s arguments should be rejected
Theobald committed a “‘serious offense’ — based on the violations of state Board of Education rules, School Board policies and district procedures” — and progressive discipline is inappropriate in this case, Gonzales wrote in a filing July 2 for the School Board.
“Immediate removal was the only option,” Gonzales wrote.
But Powell argued in his July 13 filing, the School Board should reject Gonzales’ arguments against Livingstone’s recommendation.
Theobald’s “employment with the (School) Board should be reinstated,” Powell wrote.
Livingstone’s recommendation “was based on the weight of substantial competent evidence presented” at the April 2 hearing and should be adopted by the School Board, Powell said.
Keith Burbank is a watchdog reporter for TCPalm, covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Lawyer for Florida teacher rejects argument for firing over Kirk post
Reporting by Keith Burbank, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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By Keith Burbank, Treasure Coast Newspapers | USA TODAY Network
