"I'm happy with the judge's decision. I thank him for his wisdom. I thank our legal counsel," said school board Chairman Dr. John Abraham, who along with the Rev. Dr. John Crooks pushed the hardest to terminate Bynum.
"It affirms what we believe in Cobb County. This is not the kind of behavior we're going to tolerate among our employees," Abraham said.
Bynum's attorney, Warren Fortson of Atlanta, said Friday afternoon he had been unable to contact Bynum to deliver the news. Based upon what Bynum wants to do, he will either drop the case or take it to the Georgia Court of Appeals.
"You win some and you lose some. We lost this one," Fortson said, calling it a disappointment, but not a surprise.
Fortson had asked the court to reinstate Bynum as principal of North Cobb High or an equivalent position.
The school board fired Bynum on Oct. 23 based on allegations that he made inappropriate sexual comments and retaliated against staff at North Cobb High School. A tribunal advised the school board that Bynum simply be suspended for 20 days, while Superintendent Fred Sanderson advised that he be suspended and demoted to the rank of teacher.
Bynum appealed his firing to the Georgia Board of Education, which on March 12 reversed the Cobb board's decision, holding that the Cobb board acted arbitrarily and capriciously in firing Bynum.
The Cobb board appealed the state board's decision to Cobb Superior Court on March 26, in a vote of 5-2, with David Morgan and Alison Bartlett opposing.
In Superior Court Judge LaTain Kell's Friday order, Kell held that the state school board erred in ruling that the Cobb board violated Bynum's rights by increasing the penalty recommended by Bynum's tribunal.
"Georgia law clearly permits the local board to increase the penalty recommended by a tribunal," Kell wrote.
Besides, Kell wrote, Bynum was placed on specific notice with a "last chance" letter of direction given to him on July 17, 2008, warning that termination could result from a violation of the provisions in the letter.
"The meaning of the words 'last chance,' 'directive' and 'termination' in the letter seem, to this Court, quite unambiguous," Kell wrote.
Kell also held that based on the "any evidence standard of review," the Cobb board's decision to terminate Bynum must be upheld. Both the tribunal and the Cobb board found that Bynum was in "willful neglect of duty" due to a comment he made to school social worker Stephanie Solomon that violated his last chance letter of direction.
Because Bynum did not appeal that finding to the Superior Court, Kell sustained and affirmed the decision, noting it "alone warrants termination."
Fortson said he had been worried about the "any evidence" rule from the beginning. He also said he wanted to make it clear that he did not attribute Kell's ruling in favor of the school board to Kell's ties to the school district.
Kell is a former attorney and shareholder with Brock, Clay, Calhoun and Rogers, the Cobb school board's longtime law firm. His father, the late Corky Kell, was a Wheeler High School football coach and is the namesake of Kell High School in northeast Cobb, while his mother, Carole Kell, is a former Dickerson Middle School principal.
Background
Bynum served as principal of Floyd Middle School from 2004 to 2008. In November 2007, a math teacher filed a sexual harassment complaint against him, alleging inappropriate sexual comments. The complaint launched an investigation by Cobb School District's Diversity and Equal Opportunity Manager Sheila Cozine, which spanned from January to July 2008. While Cozine's investigation didn't find sufficient evidence that Bynum had sexually harassed the teacher, Cozine did advise he be sent a letter of direction to alert him to the seriousness of the allegations.
In June of 2008, during the investigation, the school board, at the recommendation of Sanderson but without knowledge of the investigation, approved the appointment of Bynum as principal of North Cobb High School. It was at North Cobb High that Bynum encountered additional problems. For one, North Cobb Assistant Administrator Donald Holmes accused Bynum of speaking to him about the female staff in such a sexually degrading manner that it caused Holmes to become physically ill. Second, then-North Cobb Assistant Principal Lenora Nyeste reported that Bynum had threatened her career.
Bynum denied these allegations.
Sanderson sent Bynum the "last chance letter," on July 17, 2008, directing him to "not engage in conduct that could be construed as sexual harassment."
Yet Solomon reported that Bynum told her on August 5, 2008, to "just wear a dress and stilettos" as a way to overcome her fear of public speaking, a statement Bynum acknowledged making.
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The members of the Bully Posse deepens. The heat on my neck is becoming red! We all need to run, I smell the tar and I just saw a featthers in the air.
Cobb County will be a better place without the likes of Lawrence Bynum.
It wouldn't surprise me if other female teachers harassed get some big-gun attorneys to REALLY attack Cobb County higher-ups for what happened with Bynum and other dictator-like principals' behaviors and actions. Just with the reports on a few other principals in the news in Cobb for their clandestine meetings/secret agendas, SOME news organization/investigator will have enough to root out the corruption going on down by Glover Street.
I see your point on there being a possible conflict of interest, but the defense attorney clearly stated he had no issue with Judge Kell listening to the case - even if this goes outside of the county courts, I seriously wonder how Mr. Fortson can go back & say he now has an issue with Judge Kell's participation. Would this even be seriously entertained?
Despite this, too many charges had been levied against Bynum, and too many complaints/rules violations had occurred since he was a principal in the district. Why did no one come forward? He had buddies in top management at the district central office, and even ole Fred vouched for him to the Board AND neglected to mention the harassment allegations! He even admitted to the "stilettos" remark; any corporate officer, upon hearing any employee say this, would investigate; further, if more than two witnesses admit to hearing it, such an employee would be GONE from their office.
School System once again proves you are guilty until you can prove you are innocent. Cobb County
needs to remember what goes around comes around.
Hopefully with the appeal there will be a different outcome.
What has happened to mdjonline? Where are all the interesting posters?
How disappointing.
Floating from room to room, harassed about not giving hall passes to students, etc... Cobb Co does not care about it's teachers anymore.
The lead to this story should have been, "Judge with strong family and career ties to CCSD finds in their favor." Wow! What a surprise. The judge should be unseated and disbarred for not recusing himself. Bynum's attorney should be disbarred for being asleep at the wheel and Brock should be disbarred because he is an all round bad sttorney.