Judge sides with Arlington in teacher firing
Says arbitrator erred in ruling
A Superior Court judge has overturned an arbitrator’s decision that an Arlington middle school teacher who was fired in 2007 should be reinstated.
The decision was thrown out because it was based only on the procedural misconduct of Arlington public schools and “not on any examination’’ of the alleged conduct of Charles E. Coughlin, the former Ottoson Middle School teacher, according to a 10-page ruling by Judge Thayer Fremont-Smith.
The dispute between Coughlin and the Arlington school district must now be reheard before another arbitrator, Fremont-Smith said in a March 2 ruling.
“We’re disappointed,’’ said Coughlin’s lawyer, Frank Mondano.
Coughlin is fighting his August 2007 termination after school officials said he exchanged racy e-mails with former Ottoson principal Stavroula Bouris on school computers.
Bouris was also fired, and she is still fighting to get her job back. The cases have triggered finger-pointing and accusations of foul play among school officials, faculty, staff, parents, and residents.
Bouris and Coughlin also filed a $7 million lawsuit in federal court last month alleging that school officials wrongfully terminated them based on unfounded suspicions they were having an affair.
In October, arbitrator Richard G. Boulanger found Coughlin’s dismissal was not justified under state law and said the school district violated its own complaint policies by pursuing an investigation.
In his ruling, Fremont-Smith said the arbitrator decided that Arlington could not use any of Coughlin’s e-mails obtained from the district’s public e-mail system as grounds for the teacher’s discharge because the district was first notified of the alleged misconduct anonymously.
But Fremont-Smith said that any e-mails exchanged using the School Department’s e-mail system are public records, and school employees “have no right to privacy in such e-mail.’’
Fremont-Smith said the arbitrator had exceeded his power because he made no findings as to whether Coughlin’s conduct justified his dismissal.
Mondano maintained there was never any misconduct by Coughlin, and said he and his client are now considering an appeal of the judge’s decision or going back through the arbitration process.
