Panel Says District Erred in Dismissing Teacher in Sex Case

A state Commission on Professional Competency has ruled that the Fullerton School District was wrong in firing an eighth-grade teacher because his two arrests for lewd conduct “caused a storm of publicity.”

King Steadman, a social studies teacher at D. Russell Parks Junior High, was suspended for 6 months, then reinstated in March, 1988, after his arrest on suspicion of lewd conduct and indecent exposure at an erotic bookstore in Fontana in the fall of 1987.

However, the school board decided to dismiss him in September after a public outcry from parents who packed a board meeting, demanding to know why he had been allowed to return to the classroom.

Steadman appealed his dismissal to the commission, and now the district trustees have 30 days to decide whether they will appeal the decision to the Orange County Superior Court.

Classroom Effectiveness

In its decision forwarded to the district earlier this week, the three-member commission said the district had also failed to show that Steadman’s “misconduct, whether characterized as immoral conduct or evident unfitness for service . . . has impaired (his) ability to function effectively as a classroom teacher.”

Steadman, 45, is on an unpaid leave. He could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Marianne Reinhold, did not return telephone calls.

Fullerton School District Supt. Duncan Johnson expressed disappointment over the decision.

“I don’t agree with that, but that’s what the decision says,” Johnson said. “The district’s position is that notoriety has changed the position of Mr. Steadman and that’s why we moved to dismiss him.”

Trustee Irene Armstrong on Wednesday did not want to discuss whether the board erred in basing its dismissal of Steadman on publicity prompted by his arrests.

“My thoughts are: Now, what are our alternatives; what are our choices,” Armstrong said. “I have thought about this so much in the past, and now it’s time to look forward (to) what we will do.”

Pleaded No Contest

After his arrest in Fontana, Steadman pleaded no contest to the lewd conduct charge. He was sentenced to serve 1 day in jail and was given two years’ probation. School district officials suspended him for 6 months but never disclosed the matter publicly and explained his suspension to a PTA official only as a “morals problem.”

He was reinstated at the end of the 6 months. But the public outcry--and subsequent publicity--arose when it was learned that Steadman had an earlier arrest on suspicion of lewd conduct in the men’s restroom of Hillcrest Park in Fullerton in 1981. That charge was dropped after Steadman pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace.

At that time, the school board refused to discuss the grounds for the dismissal. But those reasons came out during the commission’s public hearings in November and December, when the district presented an “expert” who talked about the influence of the publicity on Steadman’s ability to teach.

In those hearings, Steadman attempted to show that he was an alcoholic and under the influence of alcohol when he was arrested in 1987.

But the commission said that the district’s argument that Steadman’s conduct had “caused a storm of publicity which has destroyed his credibility with students and parents” was not just cause for firing him.

Founded ‘on Speculation’

Testimony on the effects of the publicity, the commission stated, “is founded entirely on speculation and cannot support a finding either one way or the other.”

The commission also rejected Steadman’s contention that he is an alcoholic. “His employment record over the years has been good,” the commission stated. “He has enjoyed good performance evaluations as a teacher. There is no record of chronic absenteeism or of signs of alcoholic withdrawal.”

Trustee Fred Mason said the commission’s finding mirrored his own reasoning in casting the only vote against firing Steadman in September.

“I’m not going to say I told you so, but I felt that’s what the appropriate position was from the start (to not fire him),” Mason said. “The only difference in the situation in March (when Steadman was reinstated) and the situation in September was the adverse publicity in the newspapers and the public outcry. And I didn’t feel that was sufficient reason for the dismissal. But I was standing alone.

Claims Media Pressure

“It was like saying the newspapers didn’t like what we did, so let’s change it,” Mason said.

California law prohibits school districts from employing anyone convicted of a sex offense. But people who plead no contest, as Steadman did to the 1987 charge, are not barred from school district activities. The lewd conduct charge against Steadman in the 1981 case was dropped after he pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace.

Betsy Cheek, a former president of the D. Russell Parks Junior High Parent Teacher Assn., said the district has no one to blame but itself for the protracted legal battle.

“It’s my feeling that they never should have put him in the classroom in the first place after his second arrest,” Cheek said. “Had they fired him then, it would have stopped. So they brought this on themselves. They used very poor judgment.”