STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

SCHOOL BOARD OF BAY COUNTY, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 84-1042

)

RONALD W. LANDEN, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

This matter came on for hearing in Panama City, Florida, before the Division of Administrative Hearings by its duly designated Hearing Officer, Robert T. Benton, II, on August 8, 1984. The Division of Administrative Hearings received a transcript of the proceedings on August 16, 1984. The parties were represented by counsel:

For Petitioner: Franklin R. Harrison, Esquire

Post Office Box 1579 Panama City, Florida 32401

For Respondent: Philip J. Padovano, Esquire

1020 East Lafayette Street, Suite 201

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

By administrative complaint dated March 2, 1984, Pete Holman, as petitioner's superintendent, alleged that respondent Landen "was a vocational instructor at Rosenwald Junior High School in the Bay County School District"; that at "diverse times during the 1981-1982 school year and beyond, Respondent engaged in a romantic and unprofessional relationship with a minor female pupil who was 14 at the time the relationship began"; and that respondent "admitted his relationship . . . and promised the relationship would end . . . [but] continued and persisted in this relationship; on account of which respondent "is guilty of misconduct in office which has seriously reduced his effectiveness as an employee of the Bay County School District under Rule 6B-4.09, Florida Administrative Code" and has "failed to make reasonable effort to protect a student or pupil from conditions harmful to learning or to health or safety; exploited a professional relationship with a student for personal gain or advantage, and entered into a romantic and unprofessional relationship which might have influenced his professional judgment or to obtain special advantages, all in violation of Rule 6B-1.06," Florida Administrative Code.

This case was consolidated for hearing with Turlington v. Landen, No. 84- 1043. On September 10, 1984, petitioner filed petitioner's proposed recommended order, adopting the proposed recommended order filed in No. 84-1043 on August 29, 1984. Respondent's post-hearing memorandum was filed September 7, 1984.

The parties' proposed fact findings have been adopted, in substance, except where not supported by the weight of the evidence, immaterial, cumulative or subordinate.

ISSUE

Whether respondent's suspension without pay should be upheld and whether he should be dismissed from employment for the reasons alleged in the administrative complaint?

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Until his suspension on the strength of allegations like those in the administrative complaint, Ronald Wesley Landen taught horticulture at Rosenwald Junior High School, which operates in Panama City, Florida, under petitioner's aegis. Suzi, who turned 15 in April of 1983, met Mr. Landen as a pupil in one of his classes. She spoke highly of her teacher all year. Mr. and Mrs. Landen took her to Tallahassee to see a play once. Mrs. Landen had not originally planned to make the trip.

   
   

2. Mr. Landen worked at the school last summer administering a grant, with moneys from which he hired students, including Suzi, who had graduated in the spring, to assist him in caring for plants. A routine emerged in the summer of 1983. Mr. Landen called for Suzi mornings on his motorcycle. After work, he drove her to the resort on Panama City Beach where Suzi's mother worked, and where he sometimes lingered for long walks on the beach, hand in hand with Suzi. Suzi's mother grew suspicious, but her stepfather wasn't sure anything was amiss.

   
   

3. Rifling through Suzi's effects one day, her parents came upon a letter respondent had written her. On lined, blue stationery, respondent, who was born May 20, 1944, had written:

   
   

   To Suzi

   
   

   I love you very much-I am lieing (spelling) here writing this by flashlight. I wanted to tell you-you have made me very-very happy this week-I hope I have made you just as happy. Somethings are working against me-such as like-lights, water-etc but all in all it is working out. I am very happy- just watch out for the bat in the back of

   the head. I love you-I hope you are feeling better. I don't want you sick. I hate weekends. I can't see you-I can't wait to see you in the morning & I hate to take you home in the afternoon. I want to be able

   to tell the world how I care about you. I wish you would not worry so much-Wes & Robert will learn to except everything in time. So much worring-is not good for you. I love both of my sons-I love you. They will love you in time. Any way they will be-with us very little. I do want us to do things together-I love you. Well I

   am going to close now Thank for happenist- (spelling)

   
   

   I love you

   Ronald Wesley.

   
   

   Petitioner's Exhibit No. 2.

   
   

   Printed script at the top of the stationery proclaims: "Happiness means sharing bright new days, and happy thoughts with a friend." In the lower left corner a bouquet is depicted.

   
   

4. The first time Suzi's stepfather saw Mr. Landen after reading this letter, they had a lengthy discussion. Mr. Landen explained, "Well, things just got carried away too far." (T. 20) Suzi's stepfather told Landen to stay away from her, which Landen agreed to do. At her parents' insistence, Suzi quit her job at school.

   
   

5. Toward the end of the summer, Suzi and her family moved to Ohio, as they had planned to do for some time. In Ohio, Suzi received mail from school friends in Florida. Her parents noticed Cheryl Lynn's return address, but never spotted respondent's. Nevertheless, an unsigned letter from Landen to Suzi, dated "8/18/83" turned up:

   
   

   Suzi

   
   

   I sure was glad to hear you got to Ohio safe & sound. I prayed for my guardian angle to look out for you. Cheryl Lynn has been up here every day to help me. I am glad. She let me read your letter- hope you did not mine. There is a lot of things I want to say in this but I don't want to get you into trouble. I wrote you a lot of letters in Va. but I can not mail them till I am sure you & you only will get them. I love you & miss you. lots, lots, lots. I will be glad when I get a letter of my own.

   
   

   School will start Monday. 7th graders come tomorrow. They still do not have schedules for them & this is Thursday. I am not ready for school to start.

   
   

   It will be great if you come back in Sept. I hope so. I really don't want to wait till March. In fact I would pay your way here Thanksgiving & Christmas if your Mom would let you come stay with Cheryl Lynn. In fact all you got to do is call. You know what I mean. I can not tell you how much I love you & miss you & want you here with me because I

   don't really know if you could believe that much. I do hope you write me soon.

   
   

   There are a lot of people pulling for this to work out-we need a chance to work

   it out. Does your Mom & Dad still hate

   me? Do you believe it would do any good

   to talk to them? Suzi I want it to be right. I know it can be right & great.

   
   

   I pray a lot for it to work out. I even pray that your Mom & Dad will understand & let us be together. They must have be young "once" & had a real love-true feeling for each other.

   
   

   I really don't know how much to write. I don't want to get you into trouble. Gosh I wish they understood. Call me- Everybody hear is waiting. They know to get me to the phone as soon as possible.

   Like I say everybody I know except your Mom & Dad is hoping this work out for us.

   
   

   We are going to have a letter opening party when I get one. Cheryl Lynn-Faye Burles- Melissa Spear's mother. Melissa, Tommy Setliff I mean every body-they all are pulling for us. So write me soon. I love you &

   miss you-----

   
   

   Petitioner's Exhibit No. 3.

   
   

   This was on white stationery, unlined but bordered in grey and featuring a cat, in the lower right corner, holding a teddy bear and a cluster of balloons. This proved the last straw for Suzi's stepfather, who contacted school authorities.

   
   

6. The photograph he found did not help, either. On back of a likeness of himself, respondent had inscribed, "To Suzi With all the love one man can have for someone--3+=18, 42--all dreams are worth waiting for. It is & will be rough & tough. I love you Ronald Wesley." In three years she would have attained the age of consent and he would have been a mere 42 years old.

   
   

7. Superintendent Holman suspended respondent Landen with pay until the School Board met, voted a suspension without pay, and proposed dismissal. Mr. Holman's testimony that respondent's relationship with Suzi seriously reduced his effectiveness as a school board employee was uncontroverted.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

8. The parties have proceeded on the assumption that respondent attained continuing contract status prior to his suspension. Current law preserves all rights under prior law for teachers on "continuing contract status prior to July 1, 1984." Section 231.36(4)(a), Florida Statutes (1983). Of importance here is the right to continued employment in the absence of, among other things, "misconduct in office," Section 231.36(6), Florida Statutes (1981). Petitioner here alleges that respondent has been guilty of misconduct in office, which is defined by rule as "a violation of the Code of Ethics of the Education Profession so serious as to impair the individual's effectiveness in the school system." Rule 6B-4.09, Florida Administrative Code.

9. The Code of Ethics of the Education Profession is set forth in Rule 6B- 1.06, Florida Administrative Code, which requires, in pertinent part, that teachers:

   
   

   1. Shall make reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning or to health or safety.

      (h) Shall not exploit a professional relationship with a student for personal gain or advantage.

      
      

      Rule 65-1.06(3), Florida Administrative Code.

      
      

      Under the rubric of "obligation to the public," the Code of Ethics enjoins teachers to accept no and to "offer no gratuity, gift, or favor to obtain special advantages." Rule 6B-1.06(4)(d) and (e), Florida Administrative Code.

      
      

10. Petitioner has the burden in these proceedings to establish a violation of the statute and rules it has alleged that Mr. Landen breached. Respondent contends that this burden was not met because of a "total lack of evidence of any type of physical contact between the teacher and student." Respondent's Post Hearing Memorandum, p. 7. It is true that the only physical contact proven was hand holding and whatever motorcycling as driver and passenger involved, but the administrative complaint does not allege physical contact. The allegations are (1) that respondent failed to protect a student from harmful conditions, (2) that he exploited a professional relationship with a student for personal gain, and (3) that he "entered into a romantic relationship which might have influenced his professional judgment or to obtain special advantages." This last is apparently meant to charge some quid pro quo, possibly in connection with awarding Suzi the summer job, but this was not proven.

    
    

11. The evidence did show respondent's failure to protect a student from a condition harmful to learning. Indeed, Mr. Landen himself is largely responsible for the distracting condition. His avowals of love, the motorcycle rides and the walks on the beach must inevitably have caused Suzi to think differently about the man she originally came to know as her teacher. Although Suzi had finished middle school that spring and was bound for another school in the fall, she was a "student" within the meaning of Rule 6B-1.06, Florida Administrative Code. To be pursued by a married man nearly a quarter century her senior must have been disorienting in itself, but what was Suzi to make of the fact that he was her teacher? That he abetted parental evasion and deception? That he would so readily abandon his marriage? Questions like these were bound to confuse and preoccupy Suzi and interfere with her ability to concentrate wholeheartedly on her studies. Petitioner proved that respondent did not "make reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning," Rule 6B-1.06(3)(a), Florida Administrative Code, in permitting and encouraging a romantic relationship between his student and himself, in these circumstances.

    
    

12. Whether respondent "exploited a professional relationship" was not clear from the evidence. The fact that the relationship between Suzi and respondent grew into something different from "a professional relationship" does not in itself establish that the professional relationship was exploited, any more than the circumstance that teachers and students sometimes become friends proves exploitation.

13. Petitioner has the burden to show not only the fact of the misconduct, but also that the misconduct was "so serious as to impair the individual's effectiveness in the school system." Rule 6B-4.09, Florida Administrative Code. See Braddock v. School Board of Nassau County, No. AU-128, 9 FLW 1355 (Fla. 1st DCA, June 19, 1984). Mr. Holman's testimony to that effect was easy to believe, especially in light of respondent's own statements in the August letter that "a lot of people" and "everybody I know" supported (and were, therefore, aware of) the liaison between Suzi and respondent.

RECOMMENDATION

Upon consideration of the foregoing, it is RECOMMENDED:

1. That petitioner uphold respondent's suspension without pay.

   
   

2. That petitioner dismiss Ronald W. Landen as an employee of the school board.

DONE and ENTERED this 19th day of September, 1984, in Tallahassee, Florida.

ROBERT T. BENTON II

Hearing Officer

Division of Administrative Hearings The Oakland Building

2009 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

(904)488-9675

Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 19th day of September, 1984.

COPIES FURNISHED:

Franklin R. Harrison, Esquire Post Office Box 1579

Panama City, Florida 32401

Philip J. Padovano, Esquire 1020 East Lafayette Street Suite 201

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Ralph D. Turlington, Commissioner of Education

Department of Education The Capitol

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Pete Holman, Superintendent School District of Bay County,

Florida

5205 W. Highway 98

Panama City, Florida 32401

Docket for Case No: 84-001042

Orders for Case No: 84-001042