Critics Put Teacher’s Job in Jeopardy

In possibly the first such case in the state, the Capistrano school district is moving to fire a tenured high school teacher under a 1995 law that makes it easier for school officials to dismiss instructors for “unsatisfactory performance.”

Capistrano Valley High School history teacher Paul Pflueger, who has taught for 20 years, is fighting a flurry of accusations charging that he has “failed to teach his classes in a way that would enable students to understand and successfully complete assessments of their learning.”

The district issued Pflueger this week a statement containing 42 counts of misconduct. He then was asked to immediately take an administrative leave, pending a school board hearing Monday.

Some parents have complained about Pflueger, documents filed in the case show. But the move also has set off angry protests from scores of parents and fellow faculty who characterize Pflueger as an “exceptional” teacher.

“This is somebody who lives for teaching,” said parent Deborah Evans, whose daughter transferred into Pflueger’s class this semester because a sibling who had been one of his students considered him “inspirational.”

“He’s passionate. He’s outstanding. He is such a rarity. Why do they get rid of this teacher when there are so many who are mediocre?”

But according to documents obtained by The Times, the district argues that Pflueger used abrasive language with students, colleagues and parents. The scathing report also criticizes Pflueger’s teaching style as inappropriate and ineffective. They accuses him of failing more than half of his students during 1995-97.

Pflueger disputed all the charges, including the numbers flunked, contending that the district based its criticisms on complaints from a handful of parents whose children did not do well in his class. Pflueger, who is considered by some a “tough teacher,” said he expects high-quality work from his students but treats them fairly.

“I will not dumb-down my class,” Pflueger said in an interview Wednesday. “The only kids who flunk my classes are the ones who have not turned in their homework, have a lot of absences and do not study for their tests.”

He countered the criticisms by showing a district letter acknowledging that 88% of his Advanced Placement students pass the difficult AP test. He also has been voted as “best teacher” in past years by students.

His supporters believe Pflueger is being attacked by a conservative bloc that dislikes his tactic of raising such controversial topics as abortion, homosexual rights and religion during classroom discussions.

“He is very aggressive and persistent--even abusive at times,” former student Stacey Myhren wrote to school officials after she graduated in 1997. “For example, I believe that abortion should not be legal. We argued about it in class, and he brought me to tears on the subject.”

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Addressing those accusations, Pflueger said he always is judicious with students.

“I take the Socratic approach,” he said. “There’s no right or wrong answer. It’s just about taking the question further, challenging students and trying to get to the complexities of complex issues.”

Myhren’s and other accusations, he added, were never brought to his attention until a year later. Also, Pflueger said, the majority of the complaints were filed to the district during the summer of 1997, just after the district began to investigate the matter.

At Monday’s meeting, the school board will determine Pflueger’s future with the district.

Ron Wenkart, the county Department of Education’s legal counsel, said it is the first case he’s aware of in which a school district is trying to terminate a teacher under the “unsatisfactory performance” standard--used only to judge an instructor’s teaching abilities. This standard, passed by the Legislature in 1995, relaxed the burden of proof on school officials wanting to fire a teacher.