Faced With Suspension, Principal Gets Reprieve

Inglewood High School Principal Lawrence Freeman faced possible suspension Wednesday night, but school officials withdrew the measure because of a provision in the state Education Code that restricts disciplinary action against employees in the summer months.

The agenda for Wednesday’s school board meeting included Supt. George McKenna’s recommendation that Freeman be suspended without pay for “unprofessional conduct” for scuffling with Vincent Combs, the school’s basketball coach, in June.

After the agenda was printed, however, district officials learned of the state code provision that requires a board to give 30-day notice of its intention to dismiss or suspend an employee, and bars giving such notice between May 15 and Sept. 15. School board members were told of the prohibition while meeting in closed session to discuss the agenda item, school officials said.

After the executive session, the board voted to remove the item from the agenda. The length of the proposed suspension was not specified by McKenna, although one school board member mentioned 10 days during the closed session, said several sources.

Other Developments

Maurice Wiley, assistant to the superintendent, said administrators will consider developments in the case--such as Combs’ worker’s compensation claims and possible lawsuit--before renewing the suspension recommendation.

School officials called the state code provision an outdated statute from a previous era, before summer classes and year-round schools.

“When schools were little houses on the plain and kids were out picking crops in the summer, the teachers union didn’t want their employees involved in proceedings when they were not getting paid,” said Art Grant, an attorney who represents the school district. “The law hasn’t caught up with the realities of the 20th Century.”

Freeman was back in the principal’s office Thursday morning, saying he was unaware that a technicality had prevented the school board from voting on McKenna’s recommendation.

“I’m still going to go ahead and do my job and wait and see,” the 67-year-old educator said, declining to comment further on the proposed suspension.

In an interview Thursday, Combs’ attorney criticized the school district for allowing Freeman to continue in his post despite numerous complaints from teachers in recent years. He said Combs will file a lawsuit against Freeman and the school district alleging that he has suffered physical and psychological damage because of the incident.

“(Freeman) is totally out of control,” attorney Laurence B. Labovitz said in an interview. “He is not acting like a professional educator should. I’m tired of hearing of his antics against teachers who are doing their jobs. . . . It’s not part of his job to be attacking teachers.”

McKenna’s recommendation came in response to City Atty. Howard Rosten’s decision last week not to file criminal charges against Freeman for allegedly striking Combs with a door during a scuffle in the principal’s office.

The dispute began when Freeman reprimanded Combs for not following his order to buy trophies for members of the basketball team. After Freeman angrily ordered Combs out of his office, the coach stood in the doorway as Freeman repeatedly pushed the door against him, according to witnesses.

Rosten said in his three-page report on the incident that Freeman’s conduct was probably criminal but that the matter could best be resolved through the school district’s disciplinary process. Rosten reserved the right to file charges against Freeman within the one-year statute of limitations if school officials take no action.

Under the 30-day notice provision, a school board is required to give a suspended or dismissed employee the specific grounds for the disciplining so that the charges may be contested at a hearing before the board.

The decision of the school board may be appealed to the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing, school officials said.