In 2004, Beverly Garvin, an eighth-grade teacher at Arthur Fischer School in Detroit, was told by some of her students that that they were being raped and/or sexually assaulted at home and in foster homes.
.
Garvin called Child Protective Services (CPS), as required by law, though *ROSA JACKSON, the SCHOOL PRINCIPAL, ordered Garvin not to do so.
.
Garvin was immediately demoted to a fourth-grade teaching position, and later taken out of a program that would have led to her being certified as a teacher, meaning that she would only be able to be a substitute teacher. Her salary was reduced from $52,000 a year to $26,000.
.
Garvin later learned that one of her 9-year-old students had been beaten on the school's playgrounds and forced to perform a sex act on an older school boy.
.
When Garvin called CPS, she was ordered by JACKSON, the school Principal, to spend all the school days in an empty room for the next two months, later escorted out of the school by security, suspended for five months, then transferred to another school, Murray Wright. A *school board hearing was later held, where Garvin was fired.
.
The union grieved the matter, and the arbitrator held in favor of Garvin, saying sha had not violated any work rules, and awarded her two years back pay for violation of the "just cause" Collective Bargaining Agreement.
.
In trial court, Garvin asserted losing her home, job and livelihood for calling CPS, and was retaliated against for doing so.
.
*Defendants contended that the arbitration award, in and of itself, should have prevented Garvin from making any further type of civil rights claim.
.
The jury disagreed and returned a $750,000 verdict for lost wages, emotional distress and mental anguish, and punitive damages against the *individual defendants.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment