After deliberating well into Tuesday evening, a Cole County jury sided with Karen Ray in her lawsuit against the Jefferson City Public Schools.
The jury found the school district liable for a hostile work environment, forcing Ray to leave the Jefferson City High School for intolerable work conditions and awarding her $24,000 on those counts and $225,000 in punitive damages against the district. The district will also pay Ray's legal fees.
"We're very pleased with the jury's verdict," said Ray's attorney Dennis Egan. "They're speaking out that this shouldn't have happened to Karen Ray and shouldn't happen to anyone else."
Egan suggested $1 million, and while the jury didn't award that, he and Ray said they were pleased.
"I'm just happy for the win," Ray said to the News Tribune. "I think it's a win for Jefferson City teachers. Many of them have contacted me and said they're still being bullied. Maybe it didn't send the message we wanted, but now they know we're watching."
Superintentendent Larry Linthacum said they'll take time to evaluate if they want to appeal the court's decision. He said the focus has been on kids and a positive learning environment. He hopes after the trial, the community and district can start healing.
Linthacum said they will evaluate their policies and may evaluate the employees involved with the trial just as they evaluate all their employees.
"Over the next few days we're going to take a deep breath and ensure we have positive learning environments for staff and kids," Linthacum said.
For several hours Tuesday, attorneys pleaded their cases to the jury, starting with Egan.
He rehashed most of the testimonies given and evidence presented to the jury.
"One week ago and one day, we set off with a very important trial," he said. "We put on trial the Jefferson City Public Schools' policies and environment. Ray's case began in 2008 when (former Principal Myron Graber and then-Assistant Principal Jeff Dodson's) abuses of power swept in."
He said the defense can't "escape the weight" of evidence brought to the case. He reminded the jury of current teacher Susan Saracini's testimony - she was told by Dodson numerous times she should "stay away from older teachers who stand around the coffee pot and complain."
Dodson was cited by Ray and former teacher Laura Cooper as calling the older teachers "old dead weight" or "dead wood." Those claims were backed by current JCPS employee Tammy Ferry, who previously dated current Associate Principal David Wilson. In her testimony, Ferry said she heard him and Dodson say on numerous occasions they had an "agenda" to get rid of older teachers and referred to them as "dead weight."
Egan called the issues an "institutional failure" of the high school administration as well as the central office staff, including Penney Rector, for allowing the bullying to occur.
Rector conducted investigations regarding some of the complaints about the administrators but did not find them guilty. None of the administrators were written up or faced any discipline, Rector said, because they did nothing wrong.
It's state and federal statute for employers to prevent bullying and harassment from occurring, which Egan said the district failed to do.
"If the Penney Rectors of the world had done their jobs, if the board hadn't been asleep at the wheel, if they had not ignored the obvious, none of this would have ever happened," Egan said during his closing remarks.
"This kind of smoking-gun evidence is maybe a once in a career," he said. "Which is what we have here."
Dodson and Wilson had an "agenda" to take the journalism department in a different direction and push out older teachers at the high school, Egan said.
JCPS Defense Attorney Tom Mickes said there were an equal number of testimonies from current and former teachers who said they never heard any administrator make sexist or ageist comments toward any employee.
While some of the administrator's actions could be described as inappropriate, he said they were not unlawful and do not fall under protective age and gender discrimination.
Mickes reminded the jury the case is specific to gender and age discrimination. If Dodson had plans to push out older teachers, why would he hire Ray when she was 49.5 years of age, and why would he suddenly take issue to her age and gender three years later?
"It doesn't make sense," Mickes said in his closing statements.
He showed the jury several segments of evidence Ray had said in emails or letters to the administration that dispute her testimony - including calling herself Department Chair of the Media academy in her resume weeks after she met with Dodson about expanding the program and comments that a second teacher would have been "welcome."
"Yet another possibility would be to have an apprentice teacher learn under my careful guidance for a year," Ray said in a letter to the administration after she said she thought they were taking the Red & Black newspaper away from her.
That statement conflicts with her previous contention about having English teacher Brian Hodge sit in on her class for the last couple weeks of the 2013 school year or co-teaching with him for the 2013-14 school year.
It was presented in testimony that Ray never asked the high school administration to clarify whether she was losing the newspaper. She said in text messages to a former student she was "keeping the Red & Black, but I call bull - ."
"She didn't believe (she was keeping it)," Mickes said. "So what does she do? Hold onto it for three months and then file a lawsuit."
Ray resigned in April 2013 after signing her contract with JCPS then withdrawing it once she was offered a position at Nixa Public Schools.
If she had fulfilled her contract for the 2013-14 school year, she would have been tenured in November 2013. After teachers are tenured, the district has to go through great lengths to terminate them, including holding a hearing with the school board.
When Ray resigned, she was a probationary teacher, which is determined based on how many years of experience teachers have with the district. Probationary teachers are on year-to-year contracts and can be non-renewed by the district for any reason or no reason at all, Rector said during her testimony.
"All Dodson has to do in March 2013 is say, 'Penney, I don't think Karen has what it takes,'" Mickes said. "The board doesn't review her, and boom, the "principals' club" scheme is complete. But he doesn't."
In emails Dodson sent to Ray, he expressed he was sad to hear she was leaving and indicated she would be the best person to run the program.
Egan said Dodson was purposeful in his emails, being nice in written communication but "berating" during private meetings.
The principals created a "hostile" work environment, and asked the jury, "If you're someone who values your work environment, then you'll award (punitive damages)."
Egan's request came to fruition.
Previous coverage:
Administrators deny bullying, May 17, 2016
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
Former teacher sues Jefferson City School District, July 27, 2014