23 Pa. Commw. 578 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1976
Opinion by
The appellant, John L. Caifas, has appealed from, an order of the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education sustaining the action of the Board of Directors of the Upper Dauphin Area School District terminating the appellant’s contract and dismissing him from his teaching position. Mr. Caifas was charged with intemperance, cruelty, and persistent and willful violation of the school laws, any one of which offenses is a ground for termination under Section 1122 of the Public School Code of 1949, Act of March 10, 1949, P.L. 30, as amended, 24 P.S. 11-1122.
Mr. Caifas raises three questions: (1) whether the Secretary erred in dismissing the charge of intemperance, (2) whether the Secretary erred in concluding that there is substantial evidence in the record supporting the charge of cruelty, and (3) whether there is substantial evidence in the record of persistent and willful violation of the school laws.
Since the Secretary agreed with the appellant that the charge of intemperance had not been sufficiently proved, and since there is no cross-appeal, the appellant’s argument in support of the Secretary’s action in this regard is, of course, no longer pertinent. The appellant, however, uses a discussion of this charge in the Secretary’s opinion as a springboard for an argument that, since the charge of intemperance might have been brought to retaliate for the appellant’s expression of disagreement with school board policy in violation of his First Amendment rights,
In Lusk v. Estes, supra, a District Court case, the teacher was charged with what the trial judge describes as “catchall” offenses capable of “sweeping application” which the judge concluded were at least partially motivated by a desire to retaliate for anti-administration activities. In Fluker v. Alabama State Board of Education, supra, there was simply no issue as to whether the teachers had improperly performed their professional duties, and in Lusk v. Estes, supra, the trier of the facts found that catchall charges were advanced for retaliatory reasons.
In the instant case, the charges of cruelty in the treatment of students and the violation of school laws were stated in the notice furnished the appellant with great particularity and supported at the hearing by overwhelming evidence. As the Secretary properly decided, there is not the slightest evidence that these charges were motivated by the Board’s desire to punish for the anti-administration statements which were the basis for the charge of intemperance.
The evidence adduced by the Board of cruelty to students was overwhelming. The Secretary found upon substantial evidence that the appellant subjected the children under his control to the physical abuse of striking them on the head, wrestling them to the ground, propelling them into the walls and against furniture, shaking them and subjecting them to a humiliating form of horseplay referred to locally as “red belly,” consisting of exposing the victim’s abdomen and rubbing or slapping it in order to produce what the appellant apparently believed was
Finally, we comment that in this end and in the case of Landi v. West Chester Area School District, 23 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 586, 353 A.2d 895 (1976), the Secretary, apparently troubled by the defense in that and this case, that the teacher did not intend to inflict suffering on his students, provides his own rather awkward, but not plainly erroneous, definition of cruelty. We suggest to the Secretary that a fully adequate definition is that of Black’s Law Dictionary 541 (rev. 4th ed. 1968), as follows:
“[Cruelty is] the intentional and malicious infliction of physical suffering upon living creatures, particularly human beings; or, as applied to the latter, the wanton, malicious, and unnecessary infliction of pain upon the body, or the feelings and emotions; abusive treatment; inhumanity; outrage.”
We point out that intent is not irrelevant, but that it may be inferred from the facts and that denials of intent to inflict injury may be rejected, if belied by the actor’s demonstrated conduct.
Order
And Now, this 5th day of March, 1976, the Order of the Secretary of Education is affirmed and the appeal of John L. Caff as is dismissed.
. See Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 (1968).