Cooper v. Board of Education for Nash-Rocky Mount Schools

EDMUNDS, Judge.

Petitioner, an African-American at-will employee of the Nash-Rocky Mount Schools, worked as a school bus driver and teacher’s assistant. After school on 25 March 1997, petitioner told an African-American male student misbehaving on her school bus to “act your age and not your color.” Several students on the bus reacted so strongly that petitioner felt compelled to return to school immediately.

School administrators suspended petitioner with pay on 27 March 1997 and notified her of their recommendation that the Nash-Rocky Mount Board of Education (the Board) terminate her…