(New Orleans – June 20, 2012) A civil district court judge in New Orleans has determined that more than 6,800 teachers and school employees were illegally fired in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Judge Ethel Julien ruled that the Orleans Parish school Board and the Louisiana Department of Education are jointly liable for wrongfully terminating the entire work force of the Orleans Parish School Board in the months following the disaster.
“This is a great day for New Orleans and the students in our public schools,” said United Teachers of New Orleans President Larry Carter. “The message of this decision is that education leaders in New Orleans and across Louisiana must understand that they have to live and act within the law.”
“Teachers and other school employees were laid off after Hurricane Katrina because of the callous actions of the Orleans Parish School Board, the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Louisiana Department of Education,” Carter said. “Today, those dedicated educators have received some measure of justice.”
“Today’s ruling makes it clear that these firings were wrongful and illegal,” Carter said. “Now we must get on with the business of implementing the court’s decision.”
UTNO attorney Larry Samuel, a member of the legal team that fought for educators, expressed pleasure at the ruling. “This is a huge milestone in what has been a long and difficult journey for employees who suffered great hardship after Hurricane Katrina,” Samuel said.
Eight named plaintiffs are to be awarded damages of between $48,000 and $480,000 for lost wages and fringe benefits.
The judge ruled that the school board violated the contractual rights and the property/employment rights of the formerly tenured employees of the school system. The State Department of Education was included in the judgment as “partners in the management, control and administration of New Orleans public schools…”
In the weeks after the storm, the school board placed virtually all of its employees on what it termed “disaster leave without pay.”
Subsequently, the board terminated the employees under authority it claimed to have from Act 35 of 2005, which requires faltering schools to be transferred to the state Recovery School District.
Judge Julien termed the disaster leave a “fictional employment status” that “did not justify withholding the employees’ salaries for seven months, after which they were terminated.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs cautioned that it may take a long time for all of the former employees to receive money. Additionally, there is likely to be an appeal. Once all appeals are exhausted, the court will have to determine how much each member of the class is entitled to receive.