Teacher loses post over testimony
Toolbox
By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau - Published: November 16, 2008
A teacher at a Rutland school for juvenile sex offenders apparently has been forced out of his position in part for testifying to a special legislative committee, according to documents obtained from his former employer.
One prominent lawmaker worries the case will have a "chilling" effect on employees' willingness to speak before Statehouse committees in the future.
Chuck Laramie of Fair Haven was placed on administrative leave following public comments he made regarding the supervision and legal rights of juvenile sex offenders.
Subsequently, Laramie says he was fired because of the statements he made at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A lawyer for the agency that employed Laramie said that the teacher wasn't fired; he was offered alternative employment at a different school, which he refused.
Laramie's job reassignment had nothing to do with his testimony, according to the lawyer.
Internal documents, however, show that agency officials wanted to push Laramie out of his teaching position because of the comments he made at the hearing, which was part of a series of public meetings in which lawmakers re-examined the state's sex offender laws.
Sen. Dick Sears, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he is convinced that Laramie's difficulties stem from his public comments.
"I have serious, serious concerns about what kind of impact this is going to have on the type of testimony we receive in the future," Sears says. "If employees like (Laramie) have to worry about losing their jobs over this then it's going to have a chilling effect on their willingness to step forward and speak honestly."
Sears' committee sought testimony from more than 100 experts during the hearings, which were held after 13-year-old Brooke Bennett of Braintree was raped and killed last summer.
Laramie says he felt compelled to testify at the Aug. 28 hearing because of the insights he has acquired as a longtime teacher at the Park Street Program, a residential school in Rutland that provides treatment programs, academic classes and 24-hour supervision for about a dozen 12- to 17-year-old male sex offenders. Laramie taught English and history to known abusers at Park Street for 16 years.
"I've learned a lot about these kids and how they behave
and I thought it was important to provide the committee with that perspective," Laramie says.
Park Street is funded by the Burlington-based Howard Center and operates under the auspices of the Vermont Achievement Center. Laramie's comments did not sit well with either organization.
In a Sept. 17 letter to the Vermont Achievement Center, a Howard Center official requested Laramie's termination from his Park Street position. Catherine Simonson, director of Children, Youth and Family Services at Howard, wrote that Laramie's public testimony was among her chief concerns. She said his continued employment at Park Street would jeopardize VAC's contract with Howard.
"We are therefore requesting VAC immediately remove Chuck Laramie from his teaching position," Simonson wrote. "
(O)therwise the Howard Center is left with no other choice but to explore alternative options that may be available to provide education services to the clients of the Park Street Program."
On Sept. 19, two days after the letter was written, Laramie was put on administrative leave by Vermont Achievement Center officials.
Kiki McShane, executive director of the Vermont Achievement Center, said in an interview last month that the decision had nothing to do with the Howard Center's threat to pull funding.
McShane's letter to Laramie on Oct. 10, however contradicts that statement.
In her memo, McShane cites the September letter from Simonson as the chief cause for Laramie's termination at Park Street and reassignment elsewhere.
"A letter has been received by VAC from the Howard Center
requesting your removal from your position
and stating that the VAC educational contract is at risk because of your employment as a teacher in the Park Street's Residential Program," McShane's letter begins. "Therefore, effective October 10, 2008, you are no longer employed at the Howard Center location."
McShane goes on to list a number of other infractions allegedly committed by Laramie over the course of his tenure at Park Street.
The complaints include a number of paperwork violations, failure to follow protocols and "displays of inappropriate conduct in a therapeutic setting."
Laramie calls the allegations baseless and says it's telling that the alleged violations, some committed months earlier, were not discussed with him until after his public testimony. He has filed a grievance with United Electrical Workers, the union to which he belongs.
"It's kind of funny that these were never problems before, and now all of a sudden, after I testify, they're saying they need to fire me over them," Laramie says.
He also says only one of the alleged transgressions appears on his official union record. That complaint, he says, was filed on Aug. 21, and it cited him for failing to fill out forms for a Statehouse seminar.
"I had permission to go, I just didn't fill out their paperwork," he says. "It's just one of these things where they hope if they throw enough mud, something will stick."
Andrew Maass, a Rutland attorney representing VAC in Laramie's grievance process, says the organization never "fired" Laramie. The letter from Howard Center, "in which they note several concerns," Maass says, served as the basis for Laramie's placement on administrative leave and subsequent reassignment to a different school.
"The bottom line is that (Howard) made it clear they did not want Chuck to return to the (Park Street) program," Maass says. "He was offered another position, and he declined it."
Maass says he cannot disclose why Laramie was placed on administrative leave, but he did say that VAC's actions had nothing to do with the public testimony. He says the agency's eagerness to find Laramie a different position is an indication that VAC considered him an asset even after the Aug. 28 legislative hearing.
At the public meeting before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Laramie told lawmakers that the state needs to put stricter oversight protocols in place for young sex criminals, many of whom he says are bound to re-offend. He also urged legislators to unseal the records of juvenile sex offenders.
"I know (the Howard Center and Vermont Achievement Center) don't like the fact that I said records shouldn't be sealed, but these kids know when they walk out of the program that nobody can look at their records again, and that shouldn't be the case," he says. "The fact is, that's a tool we need to have as a society."
Laramie says he also understands that his comments about the need for stricter oversight revealed his own skepticism of treatment programs. But he insists public officials need to understand the limitations of treatment in order to craft effective reforms.
"Of course I believe in treatment I've dedicated the last 16 years of my life to it," he says. "But if people think it's a cure-all, it's not. Many offenders are going to do it again. That's not pleasant to hear, but it's true, and we need to deal with that fact and not lie to people about it."
Those opinions, Simonson said, are at odds with the Park Street philosophy and "very much interfere" with the organization's mission.
"Basically I would want young people and families
to be sure they have an accurate picture of what we offer and what we stand for in our services," Simonson said. "That's why we want advocacy to at least be coordinated. Basically, to me, it's the professional thing to do."
Laramie says he had permission from VAC to testify before the legislative body as a private citizen, not as an employee or spokesperson for Park Street.
"You can't work with these (offenders) as long as I have and not have some qualms about sending them back into society without red-flagging them," Laramie says. "Some of the people we send out are extremely dangerous, and society has a right to know. And the politicians who are making our laws need to have this information."
Laramie, 51, who holds a master's degree in education from Castleton State College, was offered a choice of taking either a different job at another VAC school nearby, or opting for a six-week severance package. When he refused to take either offer, he says, he was fired. The initial reassignment offer would have been for a 10-month position that paid Laramie $15,000 a year less than his teaching post at Park Street. Though the VAC has since upped the offer to a 12-month position, he says he was loath to abandon his old post.
"First off, I like my job, and I want it back," he says. "Second, if I pack up and go, or take this other job, it looks like I'm somehow in the wrong, and I don't believe that I am."
Laramie points to glowing letters of recommendation, written in May by Howard Center and VAC officials, as evidence of his competence.
Shelly McGinnis, a Howard Center employee who serves as program director of the Park Street Program, praised "Chuck's years of dedicated experience in enhancing an educational program, his ability to balance the completion of multiple tasks, his organizational skills and his astounding energy to excel in whatever he sets out to
"
Sears and other Vermont senators were concerned enough about the impact of Laramie's testimony on his job to send a letter to Howard and the VAC.
In a written response to the lawmakers, Howard Center CEO Todd Centybear suggested the "committee is allowing itself to get inappropriately drawn into
an employee appraisal process."
Centybear wrote that "Howard Center to my knowledge has never
disciplined any employee for acting responsibly and professionally."
Sears said he was "puzzled" by that comment, and in a written response to Centybear said, "in my view Mr. Laramie acted in a highly responsible and professional manner and he also made clear that he was speaking as a private citizen. A citizen who has now been removed from his position, in part because" of his testimony.
Centybear did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
Sears has yet to hear back from Centybear, and the Bennington senator says he still harbors grave concerns about the incident.
"I think Howard Center ought to reassess their appraisal," Sears says. "I need to feel that employees and representatives of different agencies are free to answer whatever questions we ask honestly. What bothers me is that evidently if you don't toe the company line at Howard, your job could be in jeopardy."
Sears says there's little he can do about Laramie's case, but he plans to pursue new legislation protecting people who testify in the future.
"I think at this point we need to develop legislation that would prevent this from happening to somebody in the future," Sears says.
Laramie will get a grievance hearing on Monday. If the conflict remains unresolved, he says, the issue will go to a federal union arbitrator.
Meanwhile, the married father of two is dipping into savings to pay for living expenses. He hasn't received a paycheck since late October.
"It's really tough. I've got the mortgage, bills, taxes, Christmas is coming up soon," he says. "I really am confident though that when this is all said and done, I'm going to have my job back, which is all I really want right now."
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