Opinion ID: 1988266
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: reliance on hearsay evidence

Text: The district court based its decision, in part, on its assumption that the board erroneously relied on hearsay evidence in making its determination. The District claims that the district court erred in this assumption, and we find it necessary to briefly address the assigned error because our sufficiency of the evidence determination is based on a review of the properly admitted testimony and exhibits. Daily's argument to the district court on this point was based on Hollingsworth v. Board of Education, 208 Neb. 350, 303 N.W.2d 506 (1981). In that case, we held: Although strict adherence to the rules of evidence cannot be demanded or even expected at a hearing before a school board, when a teacher's career hangs in the balance, the basic principles of due process demand that hearsay statements of students be given little, if any, weight. Id. at 360, 303 N.W.2d at 512. In this case, presumably, the district court was referring to the statements of K.P. and J.D., who did not testify at the hearing. The written statements of the two boys, however, were not accepted into evidence, and there is no evidence that they were considered by the board. The most questionable hearsay evidence admitted at the hearing, in fact, was offered by Daily, through the testimony of C.H.'s mother regarding statements made by K.P. that C.H.'s mother overheard. Furthermore, there is no indication in the findings of the board that the hearsay evidence, if considered, was given more than the little, if any, weight accorded to such evidence under Hollingsworth v. Board of Education, supra . The statements of J.D. and K.P. were almost entirely cumulative, as the facts asserted by J.D. and K.P. were also contained in the testimony of W.R., Alvarez, and Daily himself. The only fact unique to J.D.'s and K.P.'s accounts is the allegation that Daily prevented K.P. from leaving the room after K.P. was struck, and this allegation is entirely unnecessary to support the board's finding of corporal punishment. Thus, there is no basis to conclude that the board erroneously relied upon hearsay evidence to support its findings in violation of Daily's due process rights.