Fellow educators angry over teacher's dismissal

Colleagues of fired Cascade High School teacher Kay Powers reacted with anger to her dismissal last week, saying the Everett School District had created a climate of fear and intimidation among staff.

Teachers who worked with the former journalism and English teacher said Powers, 65, was a dedicated educator whose punishment doesn't fit the charges against her.

"She was the kind of teacher who changed kids' lives," said fellow English teacher Steve Garmanian. "When word got out that she'd been fired, it was such a shock. It didn't seem at all proportional. None of the charges against her have anything to do with her teaching."

Superintendent Carol Whitehead notified Powers on Nov. 2 that she had been terminated after a five-month investigation. Whitehead said Powers had helped students publish an underground newspaper and magazine on school time and with school resources in express violation of directives not to do so.

Whitehead also said Powers knowingly permitted students to work on the publications at school, allowed them to skip classes and gave rides to students without permission of their parents.

The superintendent said Powers continued to communicate with students and other teachers after she was placed on administrative leave in June, another violation of district orders.

"Each of these reasons, individually and collectively, constitutes cause for termination of your employment. Your conduct constitutes a material breach of your duties and obligations as a teacher and has no positive educational aspect or legitimate professional purpose," Whitehead wrote.

Through September, the district had spent $14,000 investigating the case, said spokeswoman Mary Waggoner. Whitehead couldn't be reached for comment.

Powers, who has taught 22 years at Cascade, said she plans to appeal the termination and has requested an open hearing. Powers and the district have to agree on a hearing examiner.

"I'm confident that I didn't do anything wrong," she said. "I was supposed to teach journalism and creative writing, and that's what I was doing."

Kari Averill, a 20-year history teacher at Cascade, called Powers' firing "appalling." She said Powers was a respected and successful teacher who "goes the extra mile for kids." And she speculated that anything Powers did was to try to support her students.

"Her firing has contributed to a climate of fear" among some teachers," Averill said. "If a teacher as experienced and respected as Kay can be fired, who's next?" she asked.

Other teachers said the district created the need for underground publications by insisting that all student newspapers and magazines be submitted to administrators for prior approval.

Two editors of the Everett High School newspaper, Kodak, sued the district in 2005, saying the student publications had never been subject to prior review and that the policy violated their First Amendment rights.

A federal judge in July upheld the school-district policy, which was adopted in 1998. The Kodak editors published an off-campus, protest paper while the legal case was pending. The Cascade students also began publishing the Free Stehekin and the school literary magazine, Tyro, off campus to avoid administrative review.

One of Powers' students, David Whittemore, was suspended for 10 days in June for downloading school newspaper files from a school computer onto a personal laptop, in violation of the district's ban on using school equipment for the underground papers. Everett administrators said Powers was in the classroom at the time.

The district initially said Whittemore couldn't return for his senior year at Cascade but reversed that decision in August.

Other districts in the county leave decisions about the content of student publications up to the students and their advisers. The Edmonds School District's policy, for example, says student publications enjoy broad discretion about content, but that material may not be illegal or disrupt the learning environment.

Garmanian, the English teacher, said Powers wanted to continue the student publications and defend the First Amendment at the same time she tried to follow the district's restrictions.

"The district created a difficult situation that did not need to be created," Garmanian said.

Former Cascade Principal James Dean, who left the district in June to become the principal of a new high school in Snohomish, said the school district's actions raise questions about the type of educational environment it wants to promote.

"It's all about trust. Do you trust your students to do the right thing? Do you trust your adviser to do the right thing and give you a heads-up if something negative is coming? And is this process building an environment of trust?"

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com