The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

The public outcry over the firing of biology teacher Kris Helphinstine has fueled an emotional controversy over religion's position in public education.

Superintendent Ted Thonstad, school board chairman Mike Gould and principal Bob Macauley look at the situation differently.

For them, the issue centers around what they consider to be a straightforward fact: Helphinstine "failed to exercise good judgment in teaching a controversial area and didn't get permission to deviate from his supervisors," said Gould.

According to Gould and Macauley, all the players agreed that Helphinstine had done something clearly wrong. Differences arose over what consequences were necessary.

Macauley recommended internal discipline including letters of reprimand and closer supervision, allowing Helphinstine to continue in his position. Thonstad's recommendation and the school board's decision were that Helphinstine could not be given a second chance.

Firing a teacher is a new experience for the Sisters School Board.

"I've never seen this happen before," said Gould.

From Gould's viewpoint there was no confusion in the action the board took. However, confusion has prevailed in the ranks of parents, students and community members. With the goal of helping students to understand - and move on - Macauley met with them on Monday, April 2 and explained exactly why their teacher was fired (see related story, page 33).

According to Gould one of the frustrations of situations like the one with Helphinstine is that people who do not attend school board meetings form opinions without really knowing the facts.

"When you're at the board meeting and you observe what is going on, you have a different feeling than if you're just reactive to the stimulus that happens to hit you as you wander through the community," he said.

Many have questioned whether Helphinstine was given due process. Gould and Macauley both say that he was.

"In my view he did (receive due process)," Gould said. From Gould's perspective, Helphinstine received due process during the executive session when the board listened to his response after being suspended for a day.

Gould acknowledges, however, that the likelihood that Helphinstine would be dismissed was unclear at the meeting's start.

Macauley was less definite.

"I'm still a little unclear on who called the meeting and the executive session. If Kris called the meeting, it would be to inform the board. He hadn't been told that he was going to be dismissed or any action taken against him and that's when he should have due process. Was he given due process? I'm going to say yes, even though I think it was foggy about what the purpose of the meeting was," Macauley concluded.

Helphinstine told The Nugget that he asked to meet with the school board to explain to the board the curriculum he had taught in his biology class and that superintendent Ted Thonstad had told him he had the option to choose if the meeting would be in closed executive session or in open public session.

Helphinstine opted for an executive session. According to Macauley, Helphinstine was given the opportunity to resign prior to the meeting.

Helphinstine's status as a part-time, temporary teacher makes the question of due process essentially moot. The board could fire him for any reason taken in good faith.

Both Gould and Macauley agree that the board would have had to proceed differently had Helphinstine been a tenured teacher. Had a 15-year veteran teacher done what Helphinstine did, he would not have been fired. Such a teacher has more rights.

"More importantly, he has 15 years of confidence in the district of doing things right," Macauley said.