Prior to suspending and recommending the firing of a Harford County Public Schools teacher accused of biting a student, top administrators including Superintendent Robert Tomback did not interview a school nurse who examined the student, the teacher’s attorney said Tuesday.
Details of the investigation into Fountain Green Elementary School teacher John Hickey were among those that came to light Tuesday, several days after the public announcement that Hickey had been exonerated from any wrong-doing.
Tomback remained mum on the topic at the county Board of Education meeting Monday, refusing to answer any questions on the issue, which he called a personnel matter. The school system did not respond to earlier written questions. Tomback referred questions about the procedures followed when a teacher is accused of a crime to the school system’s attorney, who was not immediately available.
Hickey was accused in June 2011 of biting a female student on the wrist at Fountain Green Elementary. According to Hickey’s attorney, Bel Air lawyer Dave Carey, the girl was in the YMCA after-school program on a Friday afternoon when she showed a mark to other students and said that Hickey bit her. She was taken to the school nurse who was still at the school. The nurse saw the mark, but by the time school investigators saw the girl the following Monday, the mark was gone.
Hickey was suspended with pay pending the results of the school investigation. In August 2011, based on the recommendation, Tomback recommended that Hickey be fired. Carey said that while the nurse’s records were reviewed by school investigators, neither they nor Tomback personally spoke to the nurse to get her opinion about what she saw. Carey said it was later learned that the nurse in fact did not believe that the mark was from a bite.
Carey said Hickey does not know what led to the accusation. In his last performance evaluation, Hickey was described by his principal as a “model educator,” according to Carey
If Hickey had not filed an appeal, Carey said he would have been terminated based on what turned out to be a false accusation. Instead, he was placed on leave without pay, where he remained for about a year as he fought to clear his name.
The school board heard Hickey’s appeal in December. It was at that time when, according to Carey, Tomback first heard the nurse’s opinion that the mark did not look like a bite. Carey claimed there was an outpouring of support for Hickey, but that the teacher declined to have any children to testify on his behalf, and he did not want any repercussions against the accuser.
In February, the hearing examiner issued an opinion recommending that the Board of Education reject Tomback’s recommendation to fire Hickey. He was reinstated by the board on June 25, given back pay and suffered no loss of service time. He was reassigned to Deerfield Elementary School in Edgewood, where he will teach 3rd grade this upcoming school year.
Criminal charges that had been filed last year were also dropped, and Hickey’s record was later expunged. Carey said Hickey does not intend to pursue further litigation at this time, adding that Hickey was not vindictive by nature and wants to get back to teaching.
Nonetheless, with no response from the school system, questions remain about the conduct of the school system’s investigation into Hickey.
Listen to The Dagger’s Cindy Mumby discuss this story Tuesday on WBAL 1090 AM:
[audio:http://www.daggerpress.com/wp-content/uploads/HickeyAudio.mp3|titles=HickeyAudio]
Sounds like what happened at JAS. Good people falsely accused, but were never cleared in public.
Can this guy Tomback not even get out of how own way? Who is advising him? Who is advising the BOE?
A ‘model educator’ falsely accused by a student. No one, repeat no one, saw any evidence that what the student said happened actually did happen. The nurse said she did not believe the student and that the mark did NOT look like a bite mark. Then he is railroaded by the school system until he has to hire a lawyer and defend himself. Only then is he finally cleared. The evidence for him being cleared is monumental and the evidence against him is zilch. And that is all they do? Tomback won’t comment? Tomback needs to get down on his knees and beg this teacher’s forgiveness personally, on behalf of HCPS and on behalf of the BOE. They all need to make some statement of remorse for what the teacher went thru.
These guys are incompetent, insensitive, jerks and bumbling idiots who couldn’t run any organization effectively. Does anyone at HCPS have any idea of how to manage an organization? Folks, this is what your tax dollars are being spent on. And you trust these guys to educate your children? I wouldn’t trust them to get my garbage cans out to my curb for pickup.
Mr. Hickey,
On behalf of the HCPS and the BOE, who are paid partially with my personal tax dollars, I offer you my apologies for what was done to you and how you were treated. Your treatment was unfair, the accusations against you were unfounded and the process to clear you took far too long. You wre put thru financial and emotional stress that was unnecessary and never should have happened. I want you to know that I do not support the unfortunate actions of either HCPS leadership or the BOE. I appreciate very much your statement that you want no repercussions against the student. It is further evidence that you are the model educator that you are said to be. Thank you for your years of service in the HCPS and the invaluable impact you have had on thousands of students over the years. I am very glad you are back in the classroom where you belong. I am sorry that we have in pace an administration that works against you rather than in support of you and I pledge to continue to work to change that.
I have to agree with you that there are real questions about the advice Tomback gets from his staff. There is another part of this situation that has not been addressed and that is the conduct of the sheriffs office during this investigation. Charges were brought in what appears to be a shoddy investigation on that side of this case. I am certain that the decision to suspend this teacher without pay and recommend his termination was influenced by the filing of charges based on what appears to be very slim evidence. And lets keep in mind that just because charges are filed does not mean someone is guilty. If I read the timelines right the states attorneys office sat on this case for a year the circumstances of which they describe as “weird.” If the states attorneys office thought it could not get a conviction and should have been handled administratively by the school system they should have announced that decision months before without letting this teacher dangle in the wind for over a year. Maybe the states attorney decision to drop charges was influenced by hearing exterminators findings which did not support Tomback’s recommendation. I guess we will never know. But this we do know, a teacher had his reputation tarnished and his life turned upside down because school system administrators, sheriffs office investigators, and states attorneys office dropped the ball on this one. Fortunately justice prevailed as the states attorney did the right thing in dropping the charges and the school board gave this teach his career back. This case has left enough egg on the faces of many people that hopefully in the future they will be more careful when they take actions that have the potential to destroy the lives of others.
Troubled,
Sorry, but I have to disagree with you on one small aspect of what you said. For some that were involved in this, particularly in the HCPS, there should not be a future.
“I want you to know that I do not support the unfortunate actions of either HCPS leadership or the BOE.” I certainly do not always agree with the actions of the BOE but as I read it the BOE was the group that saved this man’s career by rejecting Tomback’s recommendation.
The BOE let it go on far too long and the BOE are the people responsible for Tomback and the HCPS leadership. They have to share part of the blame for the leadership they allow to continue to be in place at HCPS.
Only Wheeler and Krchnavy are left from the board that brought Tomback to Harford County. If you don’t like their decision will will have an opportunity to remove them from the school board during the next election. Unfortunately for Mr. Hickey the rules do not allow for the school board to interfere with discipline issues until they are appealed to the school board.
Not relevant. The majority of the BOE were not here. The majority rules. Yes, the are 2 and yes we can remove them but that is absolutely no excuse for the BOE as a whole. The majority of the BOE endorses Tomback. How do I know? He is still here.
My understanding is that BOE cannot just dismiss Tomback unless violates policy, commits a criminal act (though I’d classify what he’s done to HCPS over the past few years as criminal), etc. All they can do is not renew his term which hopefully will happen. He’s been a disaster since he arrived and HCPS is much worse off now than they were when Haas was still alive (and I was no fan of hers either.)
Larry is right the BOE cannot fire Tomback except for egregious conduct, which despite the opinion of many, has not occurred. And even if his contract is renewed that does not necessarily mean everyone on the BOE supported that decision. Majority rules.
I would encourage parents to contact their Board members and copy their correspondence to all of the Board telling them they do not want Dr. Tomback’s contract renewed. I think of the saying THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE APPROVES AROUND HERE and that is how out of touch with the needs of the school system he and his wing man are.
“parent”: You are clearly a defender of the new board (or a board member) who is afraid to speak for yourself. That’s fine (a little squirelly of you, but that’s your choice). But I have a question for you: when are the new board members going to get a backbone?
I don’t expect much from krchnavy/ wheeler because they were chosen by the Wolkow/Rich dynasty and neither of them ever make much sense when they speak. They are just 2 of the disasters we inherited from wolkow/rich/fidler along w Tomback & Lawrence. But the new board members (both elected and appointed) seem to really be on the ball. I just don’t understand why you keep letting tomback and lawrence make fools of you.
The very fact that the school nurse was not interviewed by the school system investigators is prima facie evidence that they conducted a shoddy investigation.
Furthermore, it is absolutely incredible that Dr. Tomback would suspend a teacher without requesting a statement from the school nurse. How did the school system present a case before for Board of Education without a statement from the school nurse? Whomever, was responsible for presenting this case before the school board should be disciplined for prosecutorial misconduct.
The investigators should be terminated immediately for their shoddy investigation and the irreparable damage they caused to Mr. John Hickey’s reputation!
Superintendent Tomback’s rush to judgment should be enough for the Board of Education to decline to renew his contact for another four years.
The revelation that the investigation was inadequate is hardly a surprise. Tomback does not stand behind teachers, never has and never will. The BOE hates educators just as much. What amazes me is that Mr. Hickey represents the average teacher and Tomback represents the average member of the BOE and central office. Yet teachers are the villains in HCPS according to many around here…
It appears that the blame for this debacle falls squarely on Dr. Tomback. If he wasn’t going to do anything or talk to anyone he should have at least had someone who knows the personnel in this county and the culture of the school system. After he has been here as long as he has, he still seems to be clueless or even worse not even caring. The fact that he wouldn’t even comment on this story speaks volumes about who he is as a superintendent and a person. This is not a job for the PR person, this story is about him specifically and how his lack of diligence in a case that effected someones career and reputation.