7th Grade Teacher Who Viewed Porn at School Gets Job Back & Tons O’ Cash!

Score one more for the Unions—and one less for whatever’s left of “normal” in Wisconsin.

In 2010, seventh-grade science teacher Andrew Harris was fired after “receiving and viewing” multiple porn images and videos while at school.  This wasn’t a case of a man simply viewing porn in the privacy of his own home—this was a skeevy middle school teacher who viewed porn—multiple times–in his place of employment, a public school. 

The unions, never to leave a pervert behind, stepped up and saved Andrew Harris’s job.  Not only that, Wisconsin taxpayers will have to pay nearly $200,000 in back pay.  According to Watchdog.org, in total the district will spend nearly $1 million on the case, “the brunt of which went to legally defending its position that the firing was fair.”  After losing to the state Supreme Court, the school board “declined to take up the district’s appeal of the arbitrator’s decision.”

Doug Willoughby, whose stepchildren attended Glacier Creek Middle School told me, “My wife and I are livid over this incident, given that we pay taxes to this school district.

“The district did fight hard to keep this man out of the classroom,” Willoughby said, “but unfortunately, Dane county is full of uber-liberal judges.  Former Governor Dreyfuss called Madison ‘Thirty square miles surrounded by reality.’”

Following is a letter that was sent to all parents of Glacier Creek students:

Dear parents and guardians:

We know there has been a lot of speculation since the State Supreme Court announced last week it would not hear the District’s appeal of its case against the Middleton Education Association. We wanted to wait to share information with you until it was appropriate. District administrators met with the MEA and its attorney this afternoon and offered former Glacier Creek seventh-grade science teacher Andrew Harris a position teaching the same subject and grade at Kromrey Middle School. We believe this meets the arbitrator’s ruling that the District must offer him his former position or a substantially equivalent position. I want to be very clear. The District has exhausted every legal recourse that was available. We are forging ahead as is required by the courts. Mr. Harris will replace Eric Engel, who has accepted a position as a Dean of Students at Kromrey. Mr. Harris is expected to report to school on Friday and will begin teaching students when second semester commences on Monday, Jan. 27. We expect parents and students will have lots of questions and we have prepared a Q&A that is below. If you have a question that wasn’t answered below, please e-mail Communications Director Perry Hibner at [email protected] and he will respond as quickly as he can. It is our goal to make this transition as smooth for everyone, but, especially, our students.

Don Johnson, Superintendent

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q: Don’t you have any other options available? A: The arbitrator was clear in her ruling in February 2012. The District could impose a 15-day unpaid suspension of Mr. Harris and ordered immediately to reinstate him to his former position or to a substantially equivalent position. Now that all legal options are exhausted, we must abide by the ruling.
Q: Why are you putting Mr. Harris at Kromrey and not Glacier Creek? A: The District has an immediate opening at Kromrey because Eric Engel has accepted a position as a Dean of Students at the school. Glacier Creek doesn’t have an opening. Had we put Mr. Harris in a seventh-grade position at Glacier Creek, we would have needed to move at least two other teachers based on seniority. All of those moves would have impacted far more students.
Q: Could Mr. Harris do something different in the District? A: Our legal team believes that in order to abide by the arbitrator’s ruling the safest way to interpret a substantially equivalent position would be a science position at one of our middle schools.
Q: Why are you moving so quickly? A: The courts were clear that we had 15 days to meet the arbitrator’s requirements. The State Supreme Court announced it would not take our appeal on Jan. 13. That means a decision must be made by Jan. 28. We also believe it made sense to have a new teacher take Mr. Engel’s classes at the start of second semester, which begins on Jan. 27.
Q: Will someone be in the room with Mr. Harris when he teaches? A: Students don’t have school on Friday and Mr. Harris will work with Mr. Engel that day on transition planning. Mr. Engel will be available, if Mr. Harris requests, to be in the classroom when he begins teaching on Jan. 27.
Q: What if I don’t want my child in Mr. Harris’ classroom? A: We don’t have another instructional option available and we won’t reassign students to a different seventh-grade science classroom.