GNS In The News

U.S. Judge Orders Rehiring Of Teacher Marion 2 Wrongly Fired Hall, Court Says

MICHAEL SPONHOUR, Staff Writer

Marion District 2 must rehire a maverick teacher after a federal judge ruled that the district superintendent and board conspired to wrongly fire her in 1991 for questioning its policies.

North Mullins Primary teacher Maggi Hall's constitutional rights to free speech were violated when she was fired in August 1991, in large part because Superintendent William Foil had a vendetta against her, federal District Judge William B. Traxler Jr. said in a Thursday ruling made public Friday.

Foil engaged in "public intimidation" of Hall and was driven by his contempt for the controversial teacher to start a "failed crusade to obtain a valid reason for Hall's dismissal," Traxler ruled.

She was fired for being what Foil called a "disruptive force," even though Hall was consistently given good ratings as a special-education teacher.

Hall had criticized the district in a series of letters published in a local newspaper.

In ordering the district to reinstate Hall with back pay and cover her legal fees, Traxler also ruled that the Marion District 2 school board meekly accepted Foil's side of the feud, and that its decision to fire her was a "foregone conclusion."

Hall said the decision was a "great day for teachers in South Carolina," and vowed to resume her crusade to prove the district is squandering funds and should consolidate with the other three Marion County school systems.

"I regret that for the past two years, I haven't been able to work with children, but justice has been served," she said. "I would do it all over again. I'm not finished."

Hall's attorney, Richard Gergel of Columbia, said the decision "shows the principles of free speech are alive and well." He estimated Hall is due between $45,000 and $55,000 in back pay.

In a prepared statement, the district said it was "extremely disappointed with this decision. We steadfastly maintain that our decisions concerning the employment of Mrs. Hall were made in the best interests of the students of our school district."

Marion District 2 attorney Ken Childs of Columbia said the district "was very patient and fair in its dealings with Mrs. Hall," and is considering an appeal.

Foil said Friday that he had not read the ruling and declined comment.

Hall, 48, had been a special-education teacher at the school since 1986. Foil removed her from the classroom in May 1991 after an article about Hall's feud with Foil appeared in The State. Hall sat in the district office and read magazines the last week of that school year. The board voted in August 1991 to fire Hall.

The confrontation began in late 1990, when Hall submitted a letter to the editor of a Marion County newspaper that accused the district of wasteful spending. She and her husband also filed numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, some of which were not complied with until the Halls sued in state court.

In this war of words, Traxler decided Foil's statements were the most damning. The judge wrote that a newspaper advertisement purchased by Foil and several internal memos show he was enraged by Hall's public stand and was determined to fire her, even though no legal grounds ever emerged to do so.

Foil purchased an ad in the Feb. 7, 1991, Marion Star warning his critics that with "the first high wind that comes along, you will be uprooted and blown away, and probably will never know the reason why."

In one memo Foil stated that he and North Mullins Principal Cynthia LeGette "cannot say that the barrage of opinions and innuendos does not bother us" and hoped that "maybe enough rope will allow our gadfly to suspend herself in an awkward position."

In another memo, Foil confirmed that he told another North Mullins Primary teacher to tell Hall "to go to hell."

After Hall began attracting public attention, school officials began monitoring her closely in hopes of finding "hard evidence" that could be used to fire her, Traxler wrote.

Hall then began sending her principal a series of lengthy written notes, some up to 19 pages long, with complaints ranging "from the serious to the most trivial," and some that were personally critical of LeGette, the opinion states.

Foil also used $300 in school funds to hire a photographer to track Hall in Washington, D.C. The superintendent thought Hall was in that city to receive an award from an environmental group at a time she was absent from school on sick leave.

Foil had already drafted a dismissal letter, but the picture that came back showed that Hall's daughter accepted the award. Foil later wrote the school board that even though the grounds were "a bit thin," he wanted to dismiss Hall even if he eventually "had to apologize on my knees at high noon on the courthouse steps."

Reprinted from The State newspaper,
January 23, 1993