A former Lafayette Parish dance teacher, Katie Champagne, is suing the School Board and Superintendent Pat Cooper after she was sent a terminiation letter last month. According to a lawsuit filed this week, Champagne is alleging that state tenure laws were broken in connection with her termination.
The teacher was arrested in December 2011, accused of inappropriately touching six female students. However, in May 2012, a grand jury refused to indict Champagne on the indecent behavior with juvenile charges. She had been put on administrative leave since November of 2011.
Champagne says she received a notice of termination letter on July 26, 2012 for "willful neglect of duty and/or incompetency". The new state law regarding termination of tenured teachers, passed by the Jindal administration, went into effect July 1st. Among other changes, this new law allows tenured teachers to be fired by the superintendent, instead of having to go before the full board. The new law also allows the superintendent to give seven days notice of termination; the old law required 20 days notice before a termination hearing in front of the school board. Finally, the new law replaces the pre-termination hearing with a post-termination appeal process; presiding over that appeal is the superintendent, a person the principal appoints, and a person the teacher appoints. The recommendation to terminate or not is then made by the superintendent.
Champagne contends that the "willful neglect of duty and/or competency" she is being accused of, occurred before the new law was in place. The last day of school was May 24, 2012. The new law wasn't put into place until July 1, 2012. Champagne received notice of termination on July 26, 2012.
Champagne is asking to be reinstated as a teacher, with no interruption to her employment with the school board.