Sunshine State

Duval County Teacher Claims He Was Fired For Being Gay

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Written by FAdmin

JACKSONVILLE–A Duval County school teacher claims he was fired from his job because of his sexual orientation.

On May 12, the county school board voted 3-1 to ignore a judge’s ruling and terminate Dennis Hester claiming he repeatedly falsified documents and lied about training at least 10 instructors to teach students the English language.

Hester, said he plans to appeal the termination.

So far, the two-year-old case has cost the school district more than $200,000 in attorney’s fees. Hester has been suspended without pay for about two years.

The school board’s attorney, Henry M. Coxe, said the case is not about Hester being gay.

“The documentation was false and his testimony was false; it’s that simple,” Coxe said. “You cannot have somebody in the school system who behaves that way, no matter how popular he may be.”

Kenneth B. Wright, Hester’s attorney, said Hester was following school district policy.

“The School Board did not prove… that Mr. Hester engaged in any fraudulent activities or took any action that would [engage] a guilty conscience,” Wright said.

In 1990, a judge’s ruling required that any public school teacher who has students just learning English obtain training for what is called English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

In 1994, Hester was hired to be an instructional coach in ESOL and other professional development subjects for teachers. At the end of a school year, district officials said there was heavy demand for ESOL training, so the district tried to shorten the training process.

Hester claims he thought teachers could obtain ESOL credits by demonstrating some alternative level of proficiency. But that left it up to his discretion. The School Board said this was never the case.

An anonymous letter in January 2013 set in motion the district’s investigation into Hester’s practices. He was suspended and fired in June of that year after he reportedly had some run-ins with other teachers.

Hester claims some of the run-ins involved derogatory comments about his sexual orientation.

He challenged the termination in front of an administrative law judge in March 2014. The judge decided in January 2015 that Hester was guilty of misconduct and unprofessional behavior and should be reprimanded, suspended without pay and transferred, but not fired.

Denise Smith Amos of the Florida Times-Union contributed to this report.

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