Court Opinion

ID: 9683181
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:23:53.685022+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:45.969663
License: Public Domain

NUGENT, Judge,
concurring.
I concur with Judge Somerville’s able majority opinion but I respectfully disagree with the way it arrives at its conclusion.
Plaintiff is a tenured teacher and the mother of two grown children. At the time of the hearing before the school board, plaintiff had been a teacher for over sixteen years. The teacher performance reports rendered each year by her superiors were good. In March, 1981, the report included these comments: “Does a fine job. Does a good job of teaching.” Under the heading “Professional Characteristics” appears the comment, “Very co-operative in anything I’ve asked.” Finally, the principal concluded with, “She is a fine librarian.” Mrs. Kimble was the elected secretary-treasurer of the Community Teachers’ Association. She and another teacher had founded and for three years had operated twice-yearly book fairs to raise money for the school library. She had been responsible for handling those funds.
In the fall of 1981 plaintiff’s activity on behalf of the teachers’ association had brought her into sharp conflict with the Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Bruner, her chief accuser. Apparently he thought that Mrs. Kimble had personally appealed to individual school board members in violation of board policy. Mrs. Kimble testified that in her earlier confrontation with Mr. Bruner he had threatened to “have” her Missouri teacher’s certificate, that he would see to it that she would never teach in their school again and had said, “You better watch everything you do from now on, because I would love to slap you with an unprofessional conduct suit.” Mr. Bruner denied making those threats, but he testified that he had told Mrs. Kimble on November 19, 1981, that “any future problems of this nature would be handled by a dismissal procedure.”
The statement of charges filed against Mrs. Kimble read as follows:
1. Immoral conduct as evidenced by your taking and continued lying concerning the circumstances surrounding the taking of a certain set of books, namely Through Golden Windows, from the Gum Drop Book Company, at Bethany, Missouri, on the 11th day of February, 1982, and continuing until said books were brought into the Elementary Principal’s office of said school district by yourself on the 18th day of February, 1982.
Other instances involving your immoral conduct as set out above are as follows:
(a) The removal and subsequent return by you of the tea pot from the teacher’s lounge during the 1973-74 school year.
(b) The removal and subsequent return of the battery jar in the 1974-75 school year.
(c) The shortage and subsequent replacement by you of gate receipts in the 1976-77 school year.
(d) The removal and subsequent return of Avon jewelry from the Elementary Library during the 1977-78 school year.
(e) The removal of the cookbook from the teacher’s lounge in the 1980-81 school year.
*956As a result of the above course of conduct, you have proven yourself to be untrustworthy and have made it necessary to more closely supervise your school activities and responsibilities than is necessary with the rest of the teachers and this had adversely affected the normal operation of the educational system and its activities.
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You are hereby suspended with pay from this date from the active performance of your duties until a decision is rendered by the Board of Education.
All but three of these charges were dismissed prior to defendant’s hearing.
Because of the deference this court must accord to the school board’s decision, I agree with the majority that the whole record includes competent and substantial evidence to support a finding that the plaintiff “is guilty of the immoral conduct of untruthfulness and taking property not her own without consent or permission.”
The evidence adduced at the hearing was as follows.

The Teapot Incident:

During the 1973-74 school year, a teapot on loan to the school disappeared from a shelf in the teachers’ lounge. A sign was placed in the lounge asking for its return. One day shortly thereafter, teacher Ann Waldeier was in the lounge and noted that the teapot was still missing. As she left the lounge, she noticed the plaintiff walking into the lounge with a manilla envelope under her arm. The envelope was not in the usual flattened condition. Ms. Waldeier continued to watch the door to the lounge and saw that no one else entered or came out. From where she was standing she could not see the other door to the lounge. When the plaintiff came out of the lounge, Ms. Waldeier reentered and saw the teapot on the shelf and a manilla envelope in the trash.
Former Superintendent of Schools, Phil Burmeister, testified that he, Mrs. Kimble, Norma Maudlin, and Ann Waldeier met and discussed the return of the missing teapot. (Ms. Waldeier had testified that she was not present when Mr. Burmeister discussed the incident with the plaintiff.) According to Mr. Burmeister, Mrs. Kimble stated that she had found the teapot in the library. He asked her why she did not present the teapot to him “rather than just taking it into- the lounge and leaving it.” When asked about Mrs. Kimble’s response, he said “I don’t remember any.” Neither he nor anyone under his supervision had given Mrs. Kimble permission to take the teapot.
Mrs. Kimble testified that she did not remember anything about the teapot and that she never stole a teapot.

The Gate Receipts Incident:

During the 1976-77 school year, Judy Hoakison, a teacher, and the plaintiff worked together taking money for basketball games at the gate. At one of those games, Ms. Hoakison left the gate table and went into the gym for no longer than five minutes. She testified that when she left the table some gate receipts money was under the cash box. Upon her return, she saw Mrs. Kimble taking money “out from under the cash box and putting it into her purse.” She equivocated in her testimony whether she knew the money she saw Mrs. Kimble put in her purse was the same money that had been under the cash box. Ms. Hoakison admitted that her memory of the event was not as good now as it was at the time of the occurrence sometime in 1976-77.
Eldon Cowles, Superintendent of Schools in 1976-78 testified that he called Mrs. Kimble into his office about the gate-receipts incident. She denied that she ever took any monies from the receipts. She explained that she was making change for her child. Mr. Cowles said that a twenty dollar bill seen at an early count of the money was gone at the end of the game. Although he admitted that under their accounting system no way existed to confirm *957a shortage, his “impression [was] that the amount of money wasn’t there.” He testified that Mrs. Kimble wrote a twenty dollar check to the school when confronted with the incident and that he considered the matter closed at that time. He stated, “It was understood between us that that was it. That took care of it.”
The plaintiff testified that she never took monies from the gate receipts and that she did not find in her cancelled checks for December, 1976 and January, 1977, any twenty dollar check to the school. Her bank statements and checks for December, 1976 and January, 1977, were admitted into evidence. Although no twenty dollar check to the school was included in the exhibits, the December, 1976 bank statement shows that two twenty dollar checks were written. Only one of these twenty dollar checks is included in the exhibits.

The Book Incident:

The school board’s evidence was as follows:
On Thursday, February 11, 1982, Mrs. Kimble went to the Gum Drop Bookstore in Bethany, Missouri. She selected three boxes of books worth approximately $400. One box contained a set entitled Through Golden Windows. The next morning, Mrs. Rose Findley, principal of the elementary school, and Marsha Scott saw this set in the library of the elementary school before school started that morning. On Monday, February 15, Mrs. Kimble called the bookstore and talked to Pam Fitzgerald, secretary of the firm. Mrs. Kimble told her that the set of Through Golden Windows', was not put into her car when she left the bookstore warehouse and that she did not have them when she got to school. An unproductive search of the warehouse was made.
Patty Hall, another secretary, talked with Mrs. Kimble after she made her call to the bookstore. She told Patty Hall that she had not picked up the set of books in question and that she had called the bookstore and that they were going to send another set. Pam Fitzgerald related plaintiff’s message to Gail Fitzgerald, one of the owners of the Gum Drop Bookstore. Ms. Fitzgerald checked with the warehouse workers. They said that plaintiff had taken the missing books and put them in her car herself. Ms. Fitzgerald then called the school unsuccessfully trying to reach Mrs. Kimble. She left a message with Betty Calhoun, a school secretary. The message read:
Gum Drop Books called and said they couldn’t find the books, Through Golden Windows. The boys that helped you load them said they could remember you carrying them to the car.
The plaintiff did not return Ms. Fitzgerald’s call. Ms. Findley, the principal, became aware of the situation on Monday, February 15, when the message was brought to her. On February 18, Ms. Find-ley called the bookstore and brought plaintiff to the phone. Early in the conversation, Mrs. Kimble stated that she received only two boxes of books. Ms. Findley heard Mrs. Kimble say on the telephone, “No, they are not in the trunk,” and “Let’s not worry. They’ll turn up somewhere.” Ms. Findley contacted Superintendent Bruner on Wednesday, February 17, about the missing books. On Thursday, the 18th, after Mrs. Kimble’s telephone conversation with Ms. Fitzgerald, Mr. Bruner confronted the plaintiff with the problem. Her first statement was, “I don’t know where they are.” She also said that she had picked up three boxes of books in Bethany. Mr. Bruner indicated that he expected the books returned to the school. After the close of school that day, Mrs. Kimble went home and then returned to school and delivered the missing books to Ms. Findley.
Plaintiff’s testimony regarding the book incident was as follows:
After she had purchased the books at the Gum Drop Bookstore and had them put into her trunk by the employees of the *958bookstore, she drove to St. Joseph and stayed overnight at her daughter’s. A snow fell that night and she drove to school early the next day before the snow plows were out. By the time she got to school, she had a severe headache. She asked another person to remove the books from the trunk and to put them in the library. Although very ill, she stayed at school all day. “Evidently,” on her way out, she “picked up this box of Through Golden Windows to take them home, look at and catalog over the week-end,” and she “evidently put it in the trunk of the car and went home.” She went to bed and slept until the next morning. On Monday, she went down to look at the books in the library and the box was not there. She then called the bookstore and told them that they evidently did not get one box of the books when she was there on Thursday. She asked them to check and see if they were still down there. She then went to the office and told the school secretary to hold the bill because one of the boxes was not at the school and that they needed to wait until they got it straightened out before they paid the bill. On occasion she took books home to catalog them. She did so to save the school sixty cents for catalog cards. She normally put the books in the back seat or in the seat beside her when she took them home. After being confronted by the principal about the missing books, she searched the library, the work rooms, and all of the teachers’ rooms. She then went home and, although she knew they were not there, she looked all around home. As she was sitting down she thought, “Well, maybe they are still out in the car. So I went out and looked in the car again, and I looked in the trunk and that’s where they were.” She then brought the books back and returned them.
Evidence was also produced by the school board that extra supervision of Mrs. Kimble was needed and that these incidents had a negative and detrimental effect on the students, faculty, and the educational process of the school district.

Discussion:

While I agree with the majority’s ultimate finding that these incidents may be said to constitute “immoral conduct,” § 168.114.1(2),1 rendering the plaintiff “unfit to teach,” see Ross v. Robb, 662 S.W.2d 257, 259 (Mo.1983) (en banc), I arrive at that conclusion for different reasons. None of the three complaints against Mrs. Kimble charge that she intentionally and wrongfully deprived the district of its property. Moreover, the majority apparently thinks that the school board is not required to prove that the teacher intentionally and wrongfully deprived the district of its property, that any taking of the property would constitute immoral conduct. The court’s opinion states that “[t]he taking of property belonging to another, notwithstanding its return when confronted with such wrongdoing, breaches even the most relaxed standards of acceptable human behavior, particularly so with regard to those who occupy positions which bring them in close, daily contact with young persons of an impressionable age.”
Indeed, if one intentionally and wrongfully takes another’s property, no matter what the value, such conduct would constitute “immoral” behavior. But, I cannot agree that any taking of property, particularly after it is later returned, constitutes immoral conduct. If so, a teacher could be discharged if he inadvertantly took a school pencil or a book home, forgot about it for a week, and then returned it. Similarly, a teacher could be discharged if he intentionally took a school grade book home to compute his students’ grades and later returned it to school. The former example illustrates a taking which lacks intent and the latter illustrates a taking which is not wrongful. The legislature, in enacting § 168.114.1(2) could not have intended that such conduct would amount to immoral *959conduct warranting termination of a teacher’s contract. Because this limited issue is one of statutory interpretation, a question of law, we are free to substitute our own judgment. See National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst Publications, Inc., 322 U.S. 111, 64 S.Ct. 851, 88 L.Ed. 1170 (1944). Therefore, I would say that to hold the taking of property to constitute immoral conduct, the court must be convinced that the taking was intentional and wrongful.2
Starting with that premise, the next issue is then whether or not competent and substantial evidence appears upon the whole record to support the conclusion that the plaintiff intentionally and wrongfully deprived the district of its property. See Harrod v. Board of Education, 500 S.W.2d 1, 6 (Mo.App.1973); § 536.140(3). This inquiry, unlike the earlier issue, is a mixed question of law and fact. And, “where the question is one of specific application of a broad statutory term in a proceeding in which the agency administering the statute must determine it initially, the reviewing court’s function is limited.” National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst Publications, Inc., 322 U.S. 111, 64 S.Ct. 851, 88 L.Ed. 1170 (1944).3
The school board here determined that the plaintiff’s acts constituted immoral conduct. I would affirm this determination for two reasons. In the first place, the whole record contains competent and substantial evidence to support the factual finding that the plaintiff intentionally and wrongfully deprived the district of its property. Next, the whole record also includes competent and substantial evidence to support the finding that the plaintiff was untruthful with school personnel and was untruthful at her hearing.
Finally, the record contains substantial evidence that plaintiff’s conduct has rendered her “unfit to teach.” Cf. Thompson v. Southwest School District, 483 F.Supp. 1170, 1182 (W.D.Mo.1980) (where no evidence was developed indicating that plaintiff’s conduct rendered her unfit to teach).

. All sectional references are to Revised Statutes of Missouri, 1978.

. Fortunately, because the property in question in this case was of some value, although relatively slight, we need not address the moral philosopher's question whether taking of property of little or no value constitutes "immoral conduct.”

. There the issue was whether news boys were "employees” of newspaper publishers as used in the National Labor Relations Act. The NLRB refused to follow common-law tort rules in defining an "employee,” and defined the term in the context of policies underlying the NLRB. They defined employees as any workers who need the Act’s protection. The Supreme Court held that "as a matter of law, the common law approach would be wrong.” But it left it to the Board to decide, as a question of fact, whether particular individuals were employees within the "need for protection" test. Thus the Court found that “the Board's determination that specified persons are ‘employees’ under this Act is to be accepted if it has ‘warrant in the record’ and a reasonable basis in law.” National Labor Relations Board v. Hearst Publications, Inc., supra, at 131, 64 S.Ct. at 861.