Judge blasts Broward school leaders, defends fired teacher
Controversial math teacher was wrongly fired due to the actions of "incompetent, careless and biased" Broward school administrators and should be rehired, a state judge has recommended.
Steven Yerks, 55, lost his job at Boyd Anderson High in Lauderdale Lakes after receiving a poor evaluation. But Administrative Law Judge Robert Meale said Yerks worked "faithfully and diligently for his students," improved student achievement and was the victim of a botched review.
Yerks, who made $75,000 a year, should be reinstated with back pay, the judge wrote.
"Among the first teachers to arrive at school each day, always wearing a tie, (Yerks) typically reported for duty … between 6:15 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., which was 30 to 45 minutes before teachers were required to report," Meale wrote. "When necessary, he stayed late and made himself available to meet with students during lunch."
Meale's decision is non-binding, so the School Board still has the final decision whether to rehire Yerks. The board has a mixed record when it comes to accepting recommendations to rehire teachers.
Yerks could not be reached for comment but his teaching history was detailed in a Sun Sentinel article in August 2014.
District officials accused him of making racially insensitive comments in his class, calling students names such as moron, stupid and idiot, yelling at reading coaches in front of students and locking students out of class.
Yerks was a placed on probation and recommended to be fired from Cooper City High in 2000, but was transferred to Boyd Anderson after he filed a grievance. He received satisfactory evaluations every year except his final year. Although he was investigated for allegations of misusing district money and child abuse, he was never found guilty.
Administrators also voiced concerns because most students in Yerks' advanced level and remedial classes were failing. Yerks told the judge the administration was placing unqualified students in advanced classes, and students in remedial courses were "unmotivated and did not try." He said he wouldn't give them grades they didn't earn.
Meale agreed, saying Yerks did not assign poor grades randomly or mistakenly. "The students earned these grades," he wrote.
The judge accused Boyd Anderson Principal Angel Almanzar and Assistant Principal Leslie Farr of misusing a complicated classroom observation tool in a way that was unfair to Yerks on his evaluation. As an example, the judge wrote that Yerks was penalized for not having a bulletin board decorated with students' work, even though the evaluation doesn't require that.
"The deployment of such a powerful, flawed tool by observers who are careless, incompetent and biased yields lots of useless data," the judge wrote.
Almanzar declined to comment andFired Broward teacher should be rehired, state judge says - Sun Sentinel:
