The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Carthage, Jasper County

Discussion

October 21, 2009

Teacher seeks oral arguments

By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — The challenge of the firing of a longtime Carthage teacher apparently will include arguments in Jasper County Circuit Court.

A hearing date has not been designated, but the attorney for Lynda Homa is requesting a time for arguments before Circuit Judge Gayle Crane.

Crane is the third judge assigned in the case. Associate Circuit Judges Joe Schoeberl and Steve Carlton disqualified themselves from presiding in the challenge.

Homa was fired for “immoral conduct” in an Aug. 27 decision by the Carthage School Board that cited “her participation in the pressuring of an incarcerated woman into giving her biological son up for adoption.” She had worked for the district for 20 years and was coordinator of the Parents as Teachers program.

The petition seeking a court review of the decision argues that the school board’s ruling was “not supported by competent and substantial evidence” because the board did not meet its burden of proof for the allegations against Homa.

Homa has said she had no knowledge that adoption would be discussed, and that she authorized the trip to a jail in Osceola so a parent-educator could take a jailed mother birth certificate papers that were needed so the child could receive state services. The Guatemalan woman at the time was in jail in an identity theft case after being picked up at a poultry plant by immigration officials.

Laura Davenport, the parent-educator, was fired at the same time Homa was placed on administrative leave.

The response filed on behalf of the school district argues that case law is in the board’s favor. It contends that state law calls on the court not to weigh the evidence presented primarily in an Aug. 18 hearing before the school board, but to determine whether the board’s decision “is supported by competent and substantial evidence.”

It describes Davenport’s jail visit outside the district as unprecedented and a violation of Parents as Teachers guidelines. Homa did not react or object when Davenport on her return said she spoke to the jailed mother about adoption, according to the district’s response, and the Parents as Teachers supervisor did not notify the administration when Davenport was subpoenaed to testify at the child’s adoption hearing. The mother has since gone to court to appeal the decision that terminated her parental rights.

The district argues that Homa “engaged in immoral conduct,” citing court definitions of moral character to include “honesty, fairness, and respect for the rights of others, and the law.”

Homa’s challenge contends that the teacher should be reinstated and awarded back compensation. The appeal argues that the record does not demonstrate that she should be disciplined, much less fired from the post.





Jail transcript

Lynda Homa’s challenge argues that the school board in its deliberation improperly considered the recorded and translated transcript of a parent-educator’s conversation with a jailed woman.

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Carthage, Jasper County
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