A former Northridge High School teacher at Middlebury Community Schools, in Indiana, is suing the school district in federal court for allegedly violating his civil rights by firing him for being an atheist.
The school corporation (two words that should really never go together) however, insists former German teacher Kevin Pack was fired for ?insubordination, immorality and incompetence.?
Keep in mind this is in the good old ultra-conservative, Bible-thumping state of Indiana, not that there aren’t intelligent, open-minded exceptions to the overall general rule in Indiana. However, the state does carry a particular sway and history to it.
To substantiate its claims, however, the school corporation released to The Elkhart Truth a nine-page list it is using as a case for firing Pack last April, one day after Pack filed the lawsuit. Part of that list includes Pack allegedly showing students a movie with a sadomasochistic scene in it, but Pack maintains that he skipped the inappropriate portion of the film.
Superintendent Jane Allen stated Jan. 22:
?We did not terminate Mr. Pack because he is (an) atheist. He was a poor teacher. That is why we terminated him, and we still believe the same thing.?
That may well be, yet remains to be seen, too. However, the school corporation states Pack was not only a poor teacher, but insubordinate and immoral. Which of the allegations amounted to Pack’s dismissal is ultimately the question. If he was indeed fired for being a ?poor teacher,? the school corporation was well within its bounds, most likely. However, if it is due to Pack being found ?insubordinate? and ?immoral? because of his atheism, Pack has quite a case pending before the court.
Pack alleges in his suit that he was actually fired as retribution by Principal Gerald Rasler for not playing ball with Rasler’s proselytizing.
The Elkhart Truth lists many examples by Pack of Rasler’s proselytizing, below:
- During a phone interview before he was hired, Rasler asked Pack about his religious beliefs and political leanings.
- Before breakfast or lunch was served during faculty meetings, Rasler asked teachers to take part in a Christian prayer. The prayers offended Pack, an atheist committed to the separation of church and state. Because he was a new hire, he didn’t feel he could openly challenge Rasler, but he declined to act as if he was praying, which Rasler noticed.
- In an email sent to all faculty, Rasler once asked teachers to pray it wouldn’t snow so that student testing wouldn’t be disrupted. In a reply to all recipients of the email, Pack, alluding to his atheism, said he would choose instead to rely upon the predictions of meteorologists.
Not long after his refusal to accept and participate in Rasler’s proselytizing, Pack says he began receiving negative evaluations and ?disciplinary warnings,? according to the lawsuit. This tactic is used against good school teachers all across the country for a wide assortment of school district bureaucratic politics. So the fact that it began happening to Pack is rather commonplace, and neither here nor there as a true reflection of his teaching performance. Ask any teacher you know, and if they’re honest, they’ll tell you.
Naturally, Pack filed complaints with human resources, which in turn (the lawsuit alleges), investigated the matter and actually concluded that Principal Rasler had, in fact, been proselytizing.
The lawsuit also points out that Superintendent Allen cited an ?unidentified? film in seeking Pack’s termination ? that same film for which Pack states skipping the inappropriate section. Pack also claims he has evidence that his predecessor at the school had also shown the film to students.
The school corporation, on the other hand, states that Pack did show inappropriate films to students ? two of them ? and Superintendent Allen claims neither had ever been shown at the school in the past.
In addition to the films, the school board also claims Pack kept offensive books on his bookshelves, within view of students, and that some students were particularly offended by one book, specifically. It’s title was in German, and reads ?something along the lines of ?All the German You Were Never Taught in School.?? The book allegedly contains nude drawings, profane language and sexual content that somehow involved animals.
It’s hard to imagine many high school students who would be so strongly offended by a bit of salty language and sexual content. And sex with animals? Maybe, but chances are a giggling gawk-fest would be the more likely result.
Also, having a book in the classroom that some may pick up and leaf through is a far cry from making the book assigned class reading.
The school board also claims students were offended by Pack using profanity in the classroom and allegedly made off-color jokes about Jews while covering lessons that touched on the Holocaust. Additionally, without any details, the school board also states colleagues of Pack had concerns about his ?stability,? going so far as to say that some actually felt ?unsafe? working in the same building as the godless teacher.
Clearly, due to his atheism, Pack is some kind of Nazi anti-Christ, right? He’s a ticking time bomb.
And funny enough, the final, most weak charge levied against Pack, is that he was simply not teaching students well enough. The fact that that aspect seems to be the least stressed aspect of the school corporation’s grounds for terminating Pack certainly suggests Pack may be correct in his assertion that he was fired merely for being an atheist.
Pack filed his lawsuit last Wednesday, Jan. 21, with the U.S. District Court, in South Bend, Indiana. Pack’s attorney, Bill Wilson, released a statement the following day:
?The First Amendment protects freedom of religion by prohibiting state actors from proselytizing or pressuring people to conform to any religious beliefs. When a teacher objects to conduct not permitted by the First Amendment, he should not lose his job as a result.?
Wilson was unable to comment on the school board’s allegations due to the pending litigation. However, he offered a copy of the Indiana State Teachers Association?s findings on the matter, which largely refutes a majority of the allegations. The teachers? union findings refutes a majority of the allegations against Pack last April, prior to his termination; however, the school board chose to ignore the union’s findings and insisted siding with Superintendent Allen’s allegations.
Pack’s attorney, Wilson, told The Elkhart Truth:
?Ultimately, what did or didn’t happen will be determined by the fact-finder in the federal suit.?
Since last April, Pack has moved back to his hometown of Columbus, Neb., where he declines to comment on the case as it is pending in court. Nor will he acknowledge whether or not he has secured another teaching position.
Pack did, however, make a comment on a related case, stating that the Indiana Department of Workforce Development administrative law judge sided with awarding him unemployment benefits. Initially, the state had approved the benefits as a matter of rote, but the school corporation soon contested the matter pointing out that Pack had been terminated for allegedly being ?insubordinate.? After a hearing via teleconference, though, that judge found no evidence of insubordination and sided with Pack ? quite a blow to the case made for justification of his larger termination case currently the before court.
The finding of that the unemployment benefits decision by the administrative law judge was also confirmed by Superintendent Allen, but she’s still currently playing clueless:
?We don’t know why they ruled that way.?
As of Tuesday, Middlebury Community Schools has yet to formally respond to Pack’s suit. The school district has up to 21 days in order to respond.
The outcome of this case should prove interesting to keep an eye on.
H/T: elkharttruth.com | Featured image: via Flickr
