Bel Air, MD – July 28,2009 – A former teacher at C. Milton Wright High School filed suit today in Harford County Circuit Court against principal Marlene Molter. In the four-count complaint, teacher John Anker charges Molter with Negligence, Interference with Contract, Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, and Defamation regarding the circumstances of his dismissal at the end of the 08-09 school year.
According to the complaint and Anker’s attorney, Lawrence P. Pinno, Jr., Molter acted in an arbitrary, capricious, and malicious manner to ensure that Anker’s non-tenured contract would not be renewed, regardless of his actual performance. “When a principal has to lie several times to her superior during an evaluation conference, that should signal exactly what her intent was,” says Pinno. “Mr. Anker approached me over a year ago with the concern that, regardless of his performance, she was going to do what she could to ensure his contract wasn’t renewed. lt should be a tremendous red flag that, this past year especially, the observation assessments of Mr. Anker conducted by Mrs. Molter were negative and completely contradictory to the overwhelmingly positive ones completed by the school’s experienced instructional facilitator.
“The Maryland State Board of Education and Harford County Public School made a large effort to mitigate bullying in the schools this past year. What do you do when the principal is the one doing the bullying?” asks Pinno, himself a former HCPS School Board Member. “How does a teacher get selected as Teacher of the Month by his peers and then recommended for non-renewal all in the same month?”
The suit also charges that Molter forced Anker to violate his student’s First Amendment rights as part of the expectations placed on him. “This put him in a position where he could be sued by a student,” says Pinno. “We can point to the day she started her campaign to destroy Mr. Anker. We have the memo that demonstrates she lied to HCPS Director of Secondary Education, Mr. Volrath, during Mr. Anker’s final evaluation conference while it also reveals the catalyst of her malicious acts.”
Explaining the suit, Mr. Pinno said, “Mr. Anker is following the due process available to him by appealing, through the appropriate channels, the board’s decision to not renew his contract. Mrs. Molter is the specific party to this suit because, had the standard Harford County evaluation process been allowed to proceed unfettered by her in Mr. Anker’s case, he’d already have tenure and be happily employed at C. Milton Wright where he was a popular teacher who was known for his dedication to his students.”
C. Milton Wright students have expressed their outrage of the situation by organizing a Facebook Cause, which has grown to 372 members.
Surprise surprise – another person at CMW in trouble for what??? Looks like there is a common thread by the name of Dave Volrath. I hope the new superintendent realizes what damage this man has done to Harford County Public School system and gets rid of him. I haven’t heard anything good about the principal from any parents that attend CMW either.
As a teacher at CMW, I can say that Principal Molter does have friends among the staff, and frankly she has done quite a good job considering the political and financial constraints on education these days. The school’s graduation rates, AP and HSA performance, and even community involvement with respect to things such as visiting professionals who present to our students are all improvements that can be directly attributed to Mrs. Molter’s policies.
Dr. Volrath on the other hand… he is a top-down leader that gives little to no credence to teachers (the true professionals familiar with how to run a classroom and school). He was a physical education teacher with no experience in an English, history, science, or foreign language classroom. This is not directly a problem, but one in his position must realize that the teachers MUST be consulted, that we are the ones that understand the things that his experiences do not allow him to understand, and that a bottom-up leadership style has almost always been shown to work more effectively than a demagogue. I agree that our new super would be wise to augment his upper-level administrative staff.
I do not know Mr. Volrath, but I have a little problem with CMWteacher’s statement that “Dr. Volrath… is a top-down leader that gives little to no credence to teachers (the true professionals familiar with how to run a classroom and school)”. I fail to see how the ability to run a classroom somehow endows one with the ability to run a school. Putting aside the fact that not all teachers even know how to effectively run a classroom, it is a big stretch to think that running a school takes the same skills as running a classroom, and it’s simply just a step up the ladder in responsibilities. Would the person who effeciently runs a local Jiffy Lube store automatically know how to be the district manager for a group of stores? They are two different skill sets with a relatively small overlap.
Concerning the statement “… but one in his position must realize that the teachers MUST be consulted, that we are the ones that understand the things that his experiences do not allow him to understand”, where is the acknowledgement that “HE is the one who understands the things that YOUR experiences do not allow you to understand”? Have the teachers all spent time as administrators? Do they actually have the out-of-the-classroom experience that he has had?
Good teachers have a very valuable role in the educational process, but things must be kept in perspective. In sports, very few Hall of Fame members become effective team managers, and equally few celebrated managers become effective front-office executives with a team.
Phil Dirt, I understand what you are saying and it makes sense. But in the case of Mr. Volrath, as Director of Secondary Education, he makes changes in the classrooms without any input from the teachers. A teacher can look at the changes and tell you they are going to cause serious problems, the block schedule comes to mind. If he would just consult with them before he makes his changes, many problems would be avoided. The teachers are the experts in the classroom, why not consult with them before you make changes in their classrooms?
Sandy, as far as changes in the classroom, I agree that input from a select group of teachers should be solicited and strongly considered. As far as the block schedule is concerned, if Mr. Volrath was instrumental in implementing it, I would not object to spending tax money to send him on an all-expenses paid vacation to Guantanamo, complete with waterboarding.
How can HSA scores and AP scores be based on a Principle?? The teachers are doing all the teaching and the students are getting the scores. The class of 2010 is a strong class in Academics. For instance i have a 3.9 GPA and I’m not in the top 25 in my class. It figures why our test grades are imporving.
3.0 GPA and top 25 and you don’t know that the person that runs the scholl is the ‘Principal’?
oops. look at me….I meant 3.9 GPA and school
As a student of CMW, I can personally say that Molter has done nothing but suck the life out of the students who attend the school. The school under her regime is the closest the school could possibly be to a prison. Yes, school is a place for education, but going along with that education is having fun. Molter does everything she can to exclude the latter. Mr. Anker being let go is just a small part of her sceheme to break up the creative writing department of the school where students are allowed to be creative and have fun! I don’t know what teacher posted the comment above, but it must have been only one of the few at CMW that actually likes Molter being in charge.
She’s already dismantled the Prep Ralleys our school used to have into a sliver of what they used to be. It’s just a matter of time until she cuts the drama department, issues school uniforms, and makes students walk around in single file lines to their next class. It was just a matter of time until she was sued, and I hope she gets fired, and is replaced with BTag, who should have been principal years ago.
I have at least 15 different families in my social circle (church, sports, personal) that have children at CMW. Not one of them has ever said anything positive about the principal Molter. In fact, the students always look angry/sad when her name comes up. She must be a pistol to have not one fan. Sounds like she needs to go …. yesterday!
Brenda, that’s pretty much the same negative opinion I get on her from my friends’ kids who attend CMW. Also, all of these students who have had first-hand knowledge of Mr. Anker and Mr. Battaglia have nothing but good things to say about them.
Phil, those are the exact same opinions I’m hearing from both the students and parents in the CMW school district. Must be something to it.
So what happened with John Anker? This lawsuit appears frivolous to me. I can tell you that I knew John Anker back when when he was in Boy Scouts in Homewood, IL in the late 1980s. It appears as though he is XXX. I wonder whether he still sports a mullet and wears the same stupid cross earring he wore back then?
your arguement is 100% irrelevant.
A former student saw this and told me about it. Wow. How extremely cowardly of you to hide behind a moniker to make that post. I hope you feel better about yourself now that you took the opportunity to try to insult me about the way I dressed 20 years ago when I was a teenager.
I’ll let the people who know me through my daily work decide whether I’m “still the self-centered bozo” you claim to have known–and it’s obvious that you didn’t really know me at all even back then. I suspect, given the vast amount of support I’ve received from the current community out here (850 miles and 20 years away from you) over the past year that you’d be disappointed.
Next time if you’re going to try to hurl potshots across the Internet, please at least have the moral wherewithal to identify yourself. The only one who’s disparaged by your post is you.
Hey Anker, it seems as though you have quite a habit of pissing people off, although I suppose that these are all misunderstandings, right? I remember hearing about the time when you were a student at Bradley University and got kicked off of the student government, which is quite an accomplishment as that almost never happens.
So whatever happened with your lawsuit against the principal? I’d be shocked if it wasn’t summarily dismissed.
The school won the lawsuit referenced in this article. See the decision here: http://marylandpublicschools.org/NR/rdonlyres/58D6A529-7AEB-41AA-BE29-52AC5B1BC2B9/28200/Anker1117.pdf