STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

EDUCATION PRACTICES COMMISSION, ) DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 82-3160

) JOSEPH FRANCIS CONNOLLY, II, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, a hearing was held in this case before Arnold H. Pollock, a Hearing Officer with the Division of Administrative Hearings, in Orlando, Florida, on October 5, 1983. The issue for determination was whether Respondent's license as a teacher in the State of Florida should be disciplined because of misconduct alleged in the Administrative Complaint.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: J. David Bolder, Esquire

Post Office Box 1694 Tallahassee, Florida 32302

For Respondent: Joseph F. Connolly, II, pro se

4218 Arajo Court

Orlando, Florida 32812 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

By Administrative Complaint dated October 25, 1982, the Commissioner of Education seeks the revocation, suspension, or other disciplining of Respondent's Florida teaching license because, it is alleged, Respondent submitted a false leave request in May 1982, and this action constitutes gross immorality and an act involving moral turpitude which seriously reduces his effectiveness as an employee of the Orange County School Board and is a violation of Section 231.28, Florida Statutes (1981), as well as of Rule 6B- 1.06(5)(a) and (g), Florida Administrative Code. By letter that same date, the Commissioner advised Mr. Connolly of his intended course of action. Mr.

Connolly denied the allegations and requested a formal hearing on or about November 15, 1982. The case was originally set for hearing on February 22, 1983, but, upon request of Respondent, who was to undergo surgery, the hearing was postponed to the date held.

At the hearing, Petitioner presented the testimony of Joseph E. Stephens, James L. Scaggs, Chester F. Dalton, Raymond V. Carter, and Mary A. Zimmer, and Petitioner's Exhibits 1 through 7. Respondent presented no evidence.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. At all times pertinent to this hearing, Respondent, Joseph F. Connolly, II, was licensed as a teacher in the State of Florida under Certificate Number 393556, in the areas of public service and E.M.R. medical technology.

   
   

2. On May 25, 1982, Respondent was employed as a teacher by Mid-Florida Technical Institute (MFTI), a part of the Orange County, Florida, School District. For a period of time prior to late 1981 or early 1982, Respondent had been teaching at an off-campus facility of this school, but at about that time he was brought onto the main campus and assigned to clerical duties not related to teaching. He was, however, on the rolls as a teacher and paid as such, and maintained his teacher credentials and license.

   
   

3. On January 22, 1982, Respondent submitted a request for military leave in order to engage in Army Reserve training to extend from January 29 through February 15, 1982. Attached to this request was a set of military orders signed by a Captain Decker. Due to illness, this leave was not taken by Respondent.

   
   

4. On May 25, 1982, Respondent again submitted a request for leave for military duty for the period June 7-16, 1982. This request was given to Respondent's supervisor, Chester F. Dalton, who asked that Respondent wait while he checked with the school director concerning the need for military orders to accompany the request. This second request was not, at the time, supported by military orders. The director, Mr. Stephens, indicated that orders were required, which information Mr. Dalton passed on to Respondent. Within two or three days, Respondent brought in a set of orders bearing the signature of Captain Deck and personally handed them to Mr. Dalton.

   
   

5. Mr. Dalton gave them to his secretary, Mrs. Zimmer, to process. Mrs. Zimmer, who has been married to a military member for many years and is familiar with the basics of military orders, was not comfortable with these. They appeared to her to have been altered, and, when she held these and the orders which accompanied the January leave request up to the light, she observed that they were identical except for the dates and the last two letters in the signing official's name.

   
   

6. Mrs. Zimmer brought her suspicions to the attention of Mr. Dalton, who, in turn, took them to Mr. Stephens, who, in turn, took them to Dr. James L. Scaggs, Associate Superintendent for Employee Relations of the Orange County Schools. Dr. Scaggs suggested the school officials verify the orders and, in the interim, notify Respondent that his pay would be held up pending verification. When the inquiry, outlined above, revealed the orders were invalid, Dr. Scaggs forwarded a report of the circumstances to Petitioner.

   
   

7. Inquiry of Captain Raymond K. Carter, executive Officer of Respondent's Reserve unit, revealed the orders were invalid. There was no Captain Deck assigned to the unit, nor was there any training period scheduled for the period June 7-16, 1982. After a brief inquiry, the Reserve organization determined to take no action against Respondent, but to leave action to his employers.

   
   

8. In the interim, on June 7, 1982, Mr. Dalton received another leave request for the period June 7-16, 1982, dated June 3, 1982, this time not for military training, but for Red Cross training to retain certification in his field of teaching. Attached to this request was an unsigned note requesting that the May 25 leave request be retrieved and returned in the attached envelope and this latter one substituted. Because, however, it is school board policy

   not to pay teachers to take certification training during school session time, this June 3 request was disapproved. By this time, also, the May 25 request had been approved by Mr. Stephens and had been forwarded to the superintendent's office for approval. Consequently, the May 25 leave request, which had false orders attached to it, was approved, and the June 3 request was denied. When the June 3 request was received on June 7, Respondent had presumably departed on leave which, under either request, was to begin on June 7, and no effort was made to contact him.

   
   

9. There is no evidence to indicate other than that when Respondent submitted the orders to go with the May 25 leave request he knew they were false and that, therefore, his application was false, and it is so found. School officials consider the filing of false documents as definitely reducing Respondent's future effectiveness as a teacher, since it would render all future documents he might submit, of whatever nature, suspect. A teacher whose reports and communications cannot be accepted as true within the school system cannot function effectively within the system.

   
   

10. Respondent urged in argument that his utilization as a file clerk at the time the leave request was submitted, and not as a teacher, takes him outside the issue of his effectiveness as a teacher. Without determining that legal issue here, it is nonetheless determined that while he was not, on March 25, 1982, being utilized by MFTI as a teacher, he was under contract as a teacher, had been employed as a teacher, was being paid as a teacher, and was licensed as a teacher. Under these conditions, therefore, he was a teacher and may be considered as such for the purposes of this hearing.

    
    

    CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

    
    

11. The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter of this proceeding.

    
    

12. Respondent is alleged to be in violation of both the Florida Statutes and the Florida Administrative Code. Section 231.28(1), Florida Statutes (1981), authorizes the Department of Education to suspend or revoke a teaching certificate on certain specified grounds. Among these are gross immorality or an act involving' moral turpitude and personal conduct which seriously reduces the holder's effectiveness as an employee of the school board.

    
    

13. Moral turpitude is generally accepted to be conduct involving grave infringement of the moral sentiment of the community as distinguishable from that misconduct which is merely prohibited by the law. Clearly, the submission of a false leave request, even accompanied by falsified military orders, while showing a basic immorality, a self-serving personal orientation, and a fundamental lack of trustworthiness, does not constitute either gross immorality or moral turpitude as called for in the statute. On the other hand, those other factors cited, above, dealing with trustworthiness and basic morality do decidedly reduce Respondent's effectiveness as an employee of the Orange County School Board. Dr. Scaggs, who had forwarded the information regarding the leave request and orders to the Petitioner, definitely demonstrated how severely Respondent's effectiveness had been compromised.

    
    

14. Respondent is also alleged to have violated Rules 6B-1.06(5)(a) and (g), Florida Administrative Code, which state:

    
    

    1. Obligation to the profession of education requires that the individual:

       1. Shall maintain honesty in all professional dealings.

          (g) Shall not submit fraudulent information on any document in connection with professional activities.

          
          

15. These rules clearly cover Respondent's misconduct and would support disciplinary action but for one major factor. They were implemented on July 6, 1982, subsequent to Respondent's acts of misconduct and cannot be retroactively applied.

RECOMMENDATION

Based on the foregoing, it is, therefore, RECOMMENDED:

That Respondent's license to teach in the State of Florida be suspended fob two years.

RECOMMENDED in Tallahassee, Florida, this 15th day of October, 1983.

ARNOLD H. POLLOCK, 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 15th day of October, 1983.

COPIES FURNISHED:

J. David Holder, Esq. Post Office Box 1694

Tallahassee, Florida 32302

Joseph F. Connolly, II 4218 Arajo Court

Orlando, Florida 32812

The Honorable Ralph D. Turlington Commissioner of Education

The Capitol

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Mr. Donald L. Griesheimer Executive Director

Education Practices Commission Department of Education

125 Knott Building Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Docket for Case No: 82-003160

Orders for Case No: 82-003160