Controversial Principal Ordered to Leave School

The Los Angeles schools chief Tuesday ordered a principal removed from a Mid-City elementary school after learning that a committee of the state teacher standards board had recommended revoking her credentials.

When interim Supt. Ramon C. Cortines became aware of the situation involving Arlington Heights Elementary School Principal Sallye Gauthier, “he directed the personnel staff that she should be out of the school Wednesday, either by her own decision or district order,” a spokeswoman for Cortines said.

Gauthier’s management has been the focus of teachers’ complaints for years.

A committee of the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing issued the recommendation Friday after hearing a former officer manager’s testimony that Gauthier managed by fear and intimidation.

The recommendation, which requires the full commission’s endorsement to take effect, was the committee’s second action against Gauthier.

Last summer, after hearing complaints from four teachers, the committee recommended a 30-day suspension of Gauthier’s credentials. The full commission has yet to act on that advice. Gauthier’s appeal of that recommendation is pending before an administrative law judge.

Gauthier said she was advised by her Los Angeles Unified School District attorney not to comment.

The complaint that resulted in Friday’s revocation recommendation was brought by former office manager Eunice Pye. Pye said Tuesday that she told the committee Gauthier restrained a special education student by putting her foot on his head.

The teachers union has said that Gauthier’s case illustrates the district’s failure to take action against substandard principals. The union says Gauthier’s supervisors protected her despite mounting evidence of her unsuitability to lead a school, including her 1996 conviction for misdemeanor manslaughter after she caused a fatal car accident.

In an April 18 letter sent to several district officials, including Cortines, seven teachers raised numerous complaints about Gauthier. The letter said she was “waging a war against teachers,” had caused nearly 70 teachers and staff members to leave the school, created an atmosphere of fear and chaos, and failed to provide textbooks and supplies.

Former Arlington Heights teacher Laura Brauner, who has sued Gauthier and monitors developments at the school, said Cortines sent Assistant Supt. Renee Jackson to speak with the principal. Jackson, who was Gauthier’s cluster leader when many of the earlier complaints were lodged, took no action, Brauner said. Jackson declined to comment.

Brauner, a 34-year veteran, said she left teaching the day Gauthier led 11 parents into her room and berated her before her students.

Many teachers have said their problems with Gauthier intensified after the car accident.

According to court documents in the case, Gauthier was seeing several doctors, including a psychiatrist, for a blackout disorder in 1996 when she lost consciousness at the wheel and slammed into seven cars, killing a man, and then drove away.

She was convicted of misdemeanor manslaughter, given a four-year suspended sentence and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service.

To the astonishment of her teaching staff, Gauthier returned to work a few days later, still bearing bruises. Despite conflicting opinions in her medical file, which was included in the court record, on whether she suffered from stress, depression or a neurological disorder, Gauthier was allowed to resume her duties without any review of her competence. Her psychiatrist told the court that her problem had been solved by a new drug used to control epileptic seizures.

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Times staff writer Ralph Frammolino contributed to this story.