BRADENTON — The Florida Supreme Court has denied the Manatee County school district’s request to rehear its case against a teacher fired after she refused to attend an internal investigative interview at the advice of her attorney.
The ruling means former Mills Elementary teacher Mary Cropsey will now receive close to $10,500 in back pay, school board attorney John Bowen said Friday.
Cropsey was suspended without pay in April 2007 after being accused of improperly helping students finish the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test exam. Tampering with the test is a first-degree misdemeanor.
But after being cleared of the charges, the district fired her for insubordination and unethical conduct, so she appealed her case to an appeals court and won.
The school district appealed the case to the Florida Supreme Court and asked for the higher court to review the case.
Lawyers, the district’s attorneys claimed, are not needed when a public employee meets with an employer.
Supreme Court judges unanimously disagreed.
“The petition for review is denied,” the one-page opinion states. “No motion for rehearing will be entertained by the court.”
Cropsey, who now teaches at Richard Milburn Academy, could not immediately be reached for comment.
“We’re disappointed because it changed Florida law,” Bowen said of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“Now if a public employer seeks to terminate an employee for misconduct, it allows for the employee to claim they were acting on advice of counsel and therefore it is not reasonable to terminate the employment.”
Email Story
Printer Friendly 
Quick Job Search