Last week several former students in Karen Ray's journalism class testified two administrators were "condescending," raised their voices and invaded student's personal space during a 2013 meeting at Jefferson City High School.
It's an encounter being used to determine whether Jefferson City Public Schools is guilty of age and gender discrimination, according to a lawsuit filed by Ray.
There have been conflicting testimonies about what happened during the May 2, 2013, sessions with three of Ray's journalism classes. Administrators have said the students were "cold" and "calculated" with their questions about the future of the program.
The students said they fielded questions while the assistant principals paced around the classroom, passed notes to each other, snickered and raised their voices at them.
An audio recording heard by the jury Monday afternoon was meant to clear that up. However, the audio was nearly inaudible at times and Claire Briggs - who provided it - said her recorder stopped after 30 minutes of recording before she noticed. There's a gap in the conversation.
In the recording, English teacher Brian Hodge presented his experience with journalism, including two reporting jobs about a decade earlier.
Students asked some hard-hitting questions, including the future budget for the program and Hodge's ability to navigate the design program used to put the newspaper together.
"I wish there was a little more confidence (in me)," Hodge said in the recording. "You guys were able to learn it. I'll have it over the summer, so I'm not coming in with zero knowledge. Will you be able to teach me some things? Absolutely."
One student could be heard saying they were concerned the progress the paper has made will be lost with a new adviser.
Occasionally, current Associate Principal David Wilson would say, "I want to know where you got that information," in terms of questions of the budget and Hodge's credentials, which is consistent with what the students said in their testimonies.
Wilson described the meeting as "unusual."
"In my 27 years, I've never heard a student ask about their teacher's credentials," he said during his testimony.
While the audio, at times, was difficult to understand, none of the voices sounded like they were yelling. At times, there were some male voices that had a slight defensiveness to their tone.
West and Wilson testified on that encounter with the students, as well as several meetings with Ray.
Wilson, who supervised Ray, said conversations about expanding the journalism program began in 2013.
In a letter Ray sent to administrators, she wrote she was "slammed" and needed more computers and financial resources to run the journalism and yearbook programs.
"Ray indicated to us that she was working very hard, and she was," Wilson said. "She worked after hours. It's a lot of work to run both of those programs."
Wilson said he reacted with ideas to expand the program, bring in additional staff, a change in facilities and add a broadcast section.
Up until May, he thought Ray was on board with the changes. He indicated there was a possibility the yearbook and the newspaper class would be split but said he knew Ray would prefer teaching the newspaper class if she had to give one up.
He testified his idea was to make her a team leader of sorts over the journalism program. Dodson suggested she be the "senior editor," but Wilson said he knew that wasn't an appropriate title and mirrored a job one of the student journalists would be.
"At one point I remember Dodson saying, 'We're giving you the keys to the kingdom,'" Wilson testified. "We weren't saying she was losing anything."
Wilson said he was involved in several meetings with Ray leading up to May 2013, and at no point was any yelling involved. At no point did anyone say, "there needs to be a man" in the journalism program, as Ray had testified last week.
None of the administrators indicated they were mad or raised their voices, and there were no threats made.
Shanna Schwarzer, an assistant principal, was in the meeting when Ray said Dodson threatened to jeopardize her future job at Nixa Public Schools. Schwarzer said no such comment was ever made.
West, Wilson and Dodson all said they were surprised when Ray told them she was resigning. All testified they did not want her to leave because they thought she was the best person to run the program.
West and Wilson went to Ray's room on May 1, 2013, to tell her Hodge would sit in on her classes since he was going to teach journalism the following year.
Both recounted similar stories about pulling her out of her classroom to briefly tell her Hodge would join her for the last two weeks of school. Both said they were surprised by her "emotional" response. They said neither of them raised their voices. There was a point when Ray tried to re-enter her classroom, and Wilson put his hand up to the door and told her not to go in while she was this upset.
West said he reached out to her - and may or may not have touched her arm - and gently told her to "calm down."
Former student Remney Bryant testified last week she was in Ray's classroom at the time of this meeting and could hear male voices yelling. Two teachers also testified they heard yelling and closed their classroom doors because of it.
Bryant said out of concern, she poked her head out of the classroom and Wilson slammed the door closed.
Both men testified they never saw any students open the door.
Their stories diverged when describing Ray's reaction to the news. In a write-up delivered to Ray, Wilson noted she "bordered on insubordination" by refusing to train Hodge and claimed she was "loud and defiant."
Wilson remembers she was loud and raised her voice at them.
West said he would not describe her as loud but was obviously distraught and crying.
Ray told the jury that when Wilson called her out of her classroom to give her the write-up, he crumpled it up and tossed it at her saying, "You're the cause of all this s - !"
However, Wilson recounted it a little differently, saying he did not crumple or toss any papers at her or in her direction. When handing her the write-up, he said Ray told him, "You're a real piece of work." He responded by saying, "You're the cause of all this mess," referring to the students' "calculated" questions.
Wilson said he never received any discipline for any of his encounters with Ray and doesn't think he did anything wrong. When asked in his deposition if he would handle anything differently, he said wouldn't, but admitted he shouldn't have said, "You're the cause of all this mess."
Previous coverage:
Principal Dodson denies allegations of 'bullying,' May 13, 2016
Ray takes the stand against JCPS, May 13, 2016
JCHS teachers felt 'bullied' by administration, May 12, 2016
JCHS administration called 'aggressive,' May 11, 2016
JCPS discrimination trial gets underway, May 10, 2016