Arlington Public Schools v. Coughlin

Fremont-Smith, Thayer, J.

This case involves the termination of a teacher, defendant Charles E. Cough*473lin, Jr. (“Coughlin”) from the Arlington Public Schools (“APS”) under M.G.L.c. 71, §42, which among other things, allows school districts to dismiss teachers with professional status for conduct unbecoming a teacher or other just cause. The APS dismissed Coughlin, its lead technology teacher responsible for teaching, among other things, computer ethics, after discovering that he had written a series of sexual and romantic e-mails to his supervisor, Principal Stavroula Bouris, on the APS’s…