Firing over classroom marijuana prompts school district lawsuit

By Steve Green

Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 | 1:50 a.m.

The local teachers' union is suing the Clark County School District for its refusal to re-hire a middle school teacher after students were caught smoking marijuana in his classroom.

The Clark County Education Association and former teacher Roy Augustian last week filed suit against the district in Clark County District Court.

The district has not yet responded to the lawsuit and its policy is not to comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit says Augustian was a first-year probationary teacher last school year at John C. Fremont Professional Development Middle School. Through March, as an eighth-grade physical science teacher, he received three overall satisfactory performance evaluations.

But on April 22 he received a letter of admonition regarding an incident in which three students were found to have been smoking marijuana while he was in the classroom.

The letter cited his alleged "inefficiency, unprofessional conduct, neglect of duty (and) inadequate performance."

Augustian told investigators he didn’t see marijuana being used, and didn't smell it.

On April 23, the School Board followed the recommendation of the administration in voting not to re-employ Augustian for the 2009-2010 school year, the lawsuit said.

"The board adopted that recommendation with no discussion of the particular facts of Mr. Augustian's employment situation," the lawsuit said.

The Education Association charges in the lawsuit that the decision not to re-hire Augustian violated state law in that he was not given time nor assistance to improve his performance.

The suit seeks a court order that Augustian be reinstated as a teacher as well as back pay and benefits.

Attached to the lawsuit are the evaluations giving Augustian overall satisfactory marks -- but also noting he had been directed to improve control of his classroom.

"Mr. Augustian has struggled with classroom management, which has led to an inconsistency in discipline and consequences and a weakness of classroom control," said a November evaluation.

The evaluation noted an observer saw the entire class talking while Augustian was taking roll one day, that students were sometimes talking, sleeping or otherwise "off-task" and that several desks in the classroom had been tagged or marked.