The Courts


Texas 13th Court of Appeals (Corpus Christi-Edinburg)
Judge was Wrong to Reverse Principal’s Firing
Over Nude Photograph She meant to be Private
Ruling: An ISD properly exercised its discretion in firing a principal after an unknown person apparently hacked into her cell phone and distributed a naked picture she had taken of herself. Edinburg CISD and [Education Commissioner] Mike Morath v. Christina L. Esparza, No. 13-18-00412-CV. Issued March 19.
(majority and concurring opinions)

Background
Esparza, who was principal of ECISD’s Barrientes Middle School, took a naked picture of herself with her personal cell phone at her house in 2015, and texted it to her oilfield worker husband, who was away at a job site.

Esparza said she did not know anything was amiss until her daughter asked her, in early June 2016, if she knew that a nude photo had been posted of her on social media. Esparza immediately reported it to her supervisor and superintendent, and upon their advice, she reported the “theft or hacking” of her nude selfie to police.

For several months previously, some students at her school had passed around the picture, and some staff members may have seen it, all without telling her or school officials.

It was only after a parent called the district to complain about the picture in late June 2016 — and the district soon after began getting calls from news outlets about the picture that had gone viral on the Internet — that Esparza was suspended, and then fired. (An independent hearing examiner had recommended that Esparza not be fired on a finding that Esparza had been the victim of a crime.)

Esparza won a ruling from a trial judge reversing the termination after the education commissioner upheld termination (in this 2017 decision). The district and commissioner jointly appealed.

For “Good Cause”
A 13th Court panel unanimously — in a 2-0 majority opinion and a separate opinion by a concurring justice — upheld Esparza’s firing by ruling that state education law gives school boards a great deal of flexibility (within limits set by the Legislature) to fire an educator for “good cause” based on findings that the educator violated the district’s local policy, as determined by the school board.

The justices ruled that ECISD had the right to conclude there was “good cause” to terminate Esparza based on the school board findings that she violated the ECISD policy prohibiting an employee’s use of electronic media (a category that includes cell phones) in a way that “interferes with the employee’s ability to effectively perform his or her job duties …”

“It was reasonable for the school board to infer from the escalating media coverage and the fact that the photo had recently ‘gone viral’ that the disruption and distraction from the photo would continue and interfere with Esparza’s ability to effectively perform her job duties, in violation of ECISD’s policy, the majority opinion states.

The concurring judge said the decision should not be taken as the court’s “tacit approval” of ECISD’s “harsh” decision, and urged ISDs to examine their policies — in this age of fast changing technologies — to protect educators from malicious actions of others.