Opinion ID: 216418
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Questionnaire

Text: To gather more information for the prosecution, which had charged K.C. with a felony for bringing a weapon to school—a charge of which K.C. was ultimately convicted—McComas created a questionnaire at home. McComas gave S.M. the questionnaire, which S.M. distributed to students at school. The questionnaire asked whether the students had “heard [K.C.] brag about bringing a knife to school,” “seen fresh cuts on [her] arms,” heard her “talk[] about cutting herself with razors,” or “seen her with a razor or knife at school.” Upon learning of the questionnaire, Lambert and Evans expressed concern over McComas’s involvement and the use of K.C.’s name. A few weeks later, McComas met with Evans, Lambert, and McComas’s union representative (the May 2007 meeting). According to McComas, Evans assumed an “angry, threatening, and intimidating” demeanor. Evans accused McComas of revealing confidential health information about a student via the questionnaire and said she must have accessed K.C’s health file. Evans told McComas that “it [was] not [her] job to be the prosecutor,” and reiterated “[his] understanding that [S.M.] jumped [K.C.].” Evans said he planned to suspend McComas for three days. After the meeting, McComas discussed the dispute between S.M. and K.C. in class and informed her students of her suspension. McComas conceded the unprofessional nature of this conversation. Lambert issued McComas a letter of reprimand in connection with her in-class actions. She then received a letter from Evans suspending her pending a disciplinary hearing before the Board (the June 2007 Board meeting). Following this meeting, and pursuant to Evans’s -4- No. 09-4451 McComas v. Bd. of Educ. recommendation, the Board rescinded Lambert’s earlier reprimand and imposed a ten-day suspension without pay.