Plymouth-Canton Community Schools v. State Tenure Commission

This case presents the question whether procedural due process is denied a public school teacher accused of misconduct when the attorney who sits as hearing officer at the teacher’s pretermination hearing before the local board of education is a member of the same law firm as the attorney representing the charging party, in this case the superintendent. We answer this question in the negative and remand this case to the State Tenure Commission for review de novo of the merits of the teacher’s administrative appeal.

A teacher’s pretermination hearing is not a full, adjudicatory hearing to which…