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Texas 13th Court of Appeals (Corpus Christi-Edinburg)
Justices say Commissioner was Wrong
In Reversing ISD’s Firing of Teacher

Ruling: The education commissioner had no basis to reverse the termination of a teacher whom an ISD’s board fired due to “rough treatment” of elementary students during separate incidents in a school year. Edinburg CISD v. Daniel Villarreal and [Education Commissioner] Mike Morath, No. 13-18-00408-CV. Issued April 9.

Background
ECISD’s board accepted the recommendation of an independent hearing examiner by firing Villarreal at the end of the first year of his then-current, two-year contract for what the hearing examiner described as “rough treatment” of misbehaving fifth grade male students at different times during the 2015-16 school year.

The education commissioner reversed the termination on findings that the hearing examiner had improperly referenced a 2012 written reprimand Villarreal had received from his then-principal over the type of force Villarreal had used to keep a male second grade student from hitting a female student. Villarreal was also reportedly told that similar behavior in the future could lead to termination, and his actions violated the state Educators’ Code of Ethics.

The commissioner concluded that ECISD should not have used an incident that happened “years ago” (and involved a different set of circumstances) as the basis for concluding that Villarreal lacked state-law immunity from being fired over the teacher’s more recent use of physical force against students.

ECISD sued Villarreal and the commissioner, and appealed after the trial judge refused to reinstate termination.

A three-member Thirteenth Court panel, in this decision, reinstated Villarreal’s termination on a finding that the education commissioner had exceeded his authority by disregarding the hearing examiner’s unalterable “finding of fact” that even if Villarreal actually believed that physical force was needed to deal with the misbehaving students in the 2015-16 school year, “his subjective belief was not a reasonable one in light of his prior disciplinary history.”

Thus, the commissioner had no legal basis for reversing Villarreal’s termination, the justices ruled.