Ex-teacher loses case against school district, principal

[The Straight Story]

Ex-teacher loses case against school district, principal

BY TRISH HOLLENBECK Northwest Arkansas Times

Posted on Saturday, December 11, 2004


After five days of hearing testimony and two hours deliberating, jurors Friday decided in favor of the Fayetteville School District and Holt Middle School Principal Mike Mason in former teacher Angela Hargis’ civil rights lawsuit. "I’m glad it’s over," Mason said, as his family and some colleagues gathered around him after the verdict was read by U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren.

Hargis brought the suit in U.S. District Court and jurors were asked to decide whether Mason retaliated against her by recommending her contract not be renewed in the spring of 2003 after she reported a physical education teacher had sexually harassed her and because she had reported Mason sexually harassed another female teacher.

Rudy Moore, lead attorney for the district and Mason, said he had no comment.

Hargis’ attorney, Stephen Wood, said the jury made its decision and he accepted it.

http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=nwat§ion=News&storyid=22784

[donco6]

1. From the one newspaper article, her case was . . .

pretty darn weak.

There are crappy employees out there. That's what this sounds like to me.

[VivaKerry]

2. If 'the other woman' didn't come forward....

well, then who knows the story against mason.

Granted, I am not going to take the time to read the whole article... so maybe other other woman did come forward.......

[donco6]

3. She gave a deposition, but didn't testify at trial.

Because the deposition revealed she hadn't considered Mason's comments as harrassment at the time. In fact, she testified that she joked about it to her husband later, when Hargis claimed she was upset and had "tears streaming down her face."

This Hargis sounds like a nutcase, frankly. And I'm not saying SH doesn't happen, because I know it does. It's just cases like this that make it harder to prove REAL incidents.

[sandnsea]

4. What a hatchet job

Sounds like this is only one side of the case to me. Who knows what she had to say or who supported her, the paper didn't report any of it.