Fоllowing a hearing before the Chattooga County Board of Education (“Local Board”), Fannie Searels, a special education teacher, was terminated from hеr employment based on charges of *732 insubordination, wilful neglect of duties, and “other good and sufficient cause,” pursuant to OCGA § 20-2-940 (a) (2), (3), and (8), respectively. Searels appealed to the State Board of Education (“State Board”), which affirmed the decision of the Local Board. Searels thereafter appealed the State Board’s decision to the superior court, which reversed the State Board. Following this Court’s grant of the Local Board’s application for discretionary appeal, the Local Board appeals from the superior court order reversing the decision of the State and Local Boards. The Local Board argues that the superior court overstepped its authority by failing to apply the “any evidence” standard of review. We agree and reverse.
Not unlike the State Board and the superior court, this Court as an appellate body applies the “any evidence” standard of review to the record supporting the initial decision of the Local Board.
Goldwire v. Clark,
Viewed in the light most favorable to the Local Board’s decision, the record shows that Searels, a tenured teacher, had taught at Chattooga County High School for eighteen years, the lаst four years of which were as a special education teacher. On August 9, 2007, Searels left a note on the desk of another teacher, indicating that the teacher аnd another staff member “can put my students into ANY elective class — no matter how advanced — except PE — because they cannot do ANY of it anyway. This is just to please the parents.” The teacher, the father of an autistic student enrolled in the school, became upset when he found the note and turned it in to the principal, Morgan Nugent. On August 10, 2007, Nugent met with Searels to discuss the note and warned her to be more careful in her oral and written comments about her students, which “could be seen by other individuals . . . [as] inappropriate.”
On August 22, 2007, Searels was standing in the hallwаy discussing J. L., a special needs student who had cerebral palsy, with another teacher, Kevin Gilliland. During the conversation, Yolanda Wade, a teacher’s assistant who worked with Sеarels, walked by, pushing J. L. in a wheelchair. According to Gilliland, Searels then told him that J. L.’s grandmother “thinks [J. L.’s] going to be an attorney or a doctor or a pharmacist, but he would probably be dead before he was 21.” J. L. was approximately two feet away from Searels when the comment was made. Wade heard Searels’ conversation and believed thаt J. L. had also overheard it and became upset because he nodded his head in response to Searels’ statement.
On August 28, 2007, Searels wore a blue jean skirt to school that violated the dress code because the skirt’s length was too short. Two days later, Nugent called Searels into his office to discuss the *733 inappropriate skirt and observed that Searels’ v-neck shirt exposed her bra and breasts. He then asked Searels to pin it up. On August 30, 2007, Nugent sent a written reprimand to Searels, advising her not to talk about students’ medical issues in thе presence of parents or other students, to follow the dress code, and to review the teacher handbook and the code of ethics.
On October 12, 2007, Superintendent Dr. Dwight Pullen sent Searels a letter notifying her that he was recommending termination of her contract for insubordination, wilful neglect of duty and “other good and sufficient cause.” Further, Dr. Pullen charged Searels with removing a student’s prescription medication from the school in violation of school policy.
After a hearing on October 23, 2007, the Local Board fоund that Searels
committed acts of insubordination and acts constituting willful neglect of duty by repeated violations of the dress code, by making inappropriate oral comments about a student with disabilities in the student’s presence, and by removing from school and taking to her home prescription medication of a student.
The Board also found that “other good and sufficient cause” existed for Searels’ termination based on her “lack of professional judgment and inappropriate attitude toward students as evidenced by the above described acts as well as other actions, including preparing an inappropriate written note and making inappropriate oral statements rеlating to students.”
The Local Board argues that the superior court erred in reversing its decision and that of the State Board by re-weighing the evidence, contrary to the “any evidence” standard of review. We agree.
Georgia’s Fair Dismissal Act, codified at OCGA § 20-2-940 (a), provides that a teacher may be terminated for any of the following grounds: “. . . (2) Insubordination; (3) Willful neglect of duties; ... or (8) Any other good and sufficient cause....” Any one of these grounds is sufficient to terminate a teacher’s contract. See
Ransum,
supra,
*734
(a)
Insubordination and wilful neglect of duties.
Given that insubordination and wilful neglect of duties both involve an intentional violatiоn or refusal to comply with a known rule, we address these grounds together. In
Brawner v. Marietta City Bd. of Ed.,
Here, the record showed that on August 10, 2007, Nugent met with Searels to discuss a written note she had placed on another teacher’s desk denigrating the abilities of her students to perform elective classes. He warned Searels not to make inappropriate comments, either orally or in written form, about her students, which could be perceived by others as reflecting poorly оn the school’s expectation for its students. Searels admitted that it was an error of judgment. Less than two weeks later, on August 22, 2007, Searels openly violated Nugent’s August 10 warning against commеnting inappropriately about students by stating to a fellow teacher, in J. L.’s-presence, that J. L. “would probably be dead before he was 21 [ ]” despite his grandmother’s high hopes for him in thе future. The evidence showed that J. L. heard Searels’ remark and he was very upset by it. There was also evidence that Searels admitted removing a student’s prescription mediсation from school, contrary to school policy.
Given the foregoing, we conclude that the Local Board’s decision to terminate Searels for insubordination аnd wilful neglect of duties was supported by the evidence, and the superior court’s ruling to the contrary was error.
Goldwire,
supra,
(b)
“Other good and sufficient cause. ”
The term “other good and sufficient cause” hаs not been specifically defined by our courts; however, we have held that derogatory comments made to a teacher concerning a student provides such a bаsis for a teacher’s termination.
See Rabon v. Bryan County Bd. of Ed.,
Based on the foregoing, we reverse the decision of the superior court.
Judgment reversed.