Judge to decide Sullivan County teacher’s dismissal appeal

BRISTOL, Tenn. (WJHL) — Judge Katie Priester is set to decide if former social studies teacher Matthew Hawn can teach again in the Sullivan County school district.

Hawn was dismissed from his job in 2021 after showing the video “White Privilege,” a poem by Kyla Jenee Lacey, in his Contemporary Issues class. A complaint was made about the profanity used in the video.

Three years later, Hawn is asking for his dismissal to be appealed, telling News Channel 11 he still wants to teach in the school system he had spent 16 years teaching at previously and had gained part of his education from.

Hawn and his attorneys are asking for his full salary to be paid in the period since his dismissal.

Arguments focused on two points: if Hawn’s actions were insubordinate and if the dismissal was the appropriate course of action.

Hawn’s attorney, Rick Colbert, claimed his client was not acting insubordinate and that the dismissal was “wrong…not well considered…was at odds with the social studies standards and best practices…” and “arbitrary”.

“So, let’s not elevate his unintentional failure to completely mute every profane word in Ms. Lacey’s poem,” Colbert said.

Colbert also claimed his client’s case is part of a broader issue of how teachers are to teach controversial topics in a political divide.

“The students are the losers when teachers become afraid to teach,” Colbert said.

Colbert argued Hawn did not deprive his students from exploring different viewpoints, and followed the Tennessee code of conduct, which, according to Colbert, only required teachers to allow access to explore viewpoints, not provide them.

The school system and board of education’s attorney, Chris McCarty, argued that Hawn did not offer other viewpoints for students, and disobeyed orders by his superiors about the content he was showing in his class.

“That’s why we’re here, your honor,” McCarty said. “Not because of one incident. Not because of one quote, horrible thing. But because you have a teacher who believed and who still believes that he’s above the authority.”

McCarty claimed it was poor judgment for Hawn to not ask for the review of his classroom content by other administrators, or parents. He mentioned the people in the audience, there because “standards matter to them”.

“Not because of the players in the presidential election,” McCarty said. “Not because of all these other issues everybody keeps trying to bring up. It’s because standards matter and they should be followed by teachers in this community.”

Four witnesses were asked to take the stand in this hearing, two who were involved in the supervision and reprimand of Hawn during the 2020-2021 school year.

In September 2020, Hawn posted the wrong material to his personal finance course, the material included a statement, “white privilege is a fact”. A parent complained and Supervisor of Curriculum Instruction in Secondary Education Brent Palmer stepped in and sent Hawn an email. The email was not meant to be disciplinary, but to help Hawn.

In his testimony, Palmer said profanity is not encouraged by the school system.

“In a professional world, we’re trying to teach students to become the citizens and the people we want them to become to be successful in life,” said Palmer. “Those are not words of young people who will become professionals in a society that we live in.”

Two professors of social studies teaching in secondary education were brought in as experts in the case, one of which was Vanderbilt education professor Andrew Hostetler.

In his review, paid for by Hawn’s team, Hostetler shared, “Hawn’s view on white privilege is clear and ethically sound.”

McCarty questioned Hostetler’s view on censoring profanity from work before showing it in an educational setting, referring to the wording used in another article provided to students before the Lacey Poem, by Ta-Nehisi Coats, “The First White President”.

“I’m saying that’s something he did intentionally as an author, and redacting it completely changes his intended meaning,” Hostetler said. “So, if the goal is around student learning, you can’t redact that stuff and expect students to learn what Ta-Nehisi Coats was trying to communicate.”

This response received a scoff from a member of the audience.

Judge Priester told the courtroom she wants to put thoughtful and careful consideration to the pieces presented and plans to release her opinion within 60 days. She’s working for that response to come between late October and early November.

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