Student rights questioned after teacher dismissed

• Teacher receives non-renewal of contract after reprimands%2C bad reviews.
• Students form %27Keep Colopy%27 group%2C but are banned from wearing T-shirts.
• Situation has created discussion about how schools handle student rights.

CHILLICOTHE – What started out as a protest against the non-renewal of a contract for a first-year teacher at Southeastern High School has evolved into a bigger question of what students are allowed to do to voice opposition to a move by the district.

At the last Southeastern Board of Education meeting nearly two weeks ago, science teacher Matthew Colopy's contract was non-renewed for next year, meaning his employment with the district would end following his first year after several years of service with the Washington Court House schools. The next day, Colopy was escorted from the school during school hours.

The two actions prompted several emails, phone calls and Facebook messages sent to the Gazette from students and parents wanting to know why the teacher was let go, with individual students claiming they had heard through the grapevine that talking about Colopy could result in a suspension. A Facebook page, Keep Colopy, has garnered more than 300 likes and is keeping the conversation of what may have happened going.

Colopy has not spoken about his non-renewal and chose not to talk about it for this story.

Micah Violette, a freshman at Southeastern, said she was suspended for three days for wearing a black T-shirt with the message "Keep Colopy" on it.

"I was in home room and there was no mention of my shirt at all," Violette said. "My homeroom teacher asked what my shirt said and then said he was sorry and he had to take me to the office."

Violette said she was one of many students who tried to make or order the T-shirts in support of Colopy. The order for shirts was placed with Neff's Hallmark Shop and then canceled, according to Violette. Neff's Hallmark declined comment as to why the order was canceled.

Violette said she was taken to the high school office and asked by Principal Leonard Steyer to either change the T-shirt, turn it inside-out or cover it up. She refused and said Steyer told her she was being disruptive because a teacher had to leave a classroom in order to take her to the office.

"I refused to change the shirt, and he (Steyer) said, 'That's called disobedience, sweetie,'" Violette said.

Micah's mother, Kelly Violette, was called to the school to pick up her daughter, who had refused to sign a form notifying her of her suspension. Kelly Violette arrived at the school wearing a "Keep Colopy" shirt as well.

"The shirt she wore (Micah) wore was not disruptive, it was not degrading," Kelly Violette said. "My daughter is a straight-A student on the honor roll. She can't make up the grades she missed because of the suspension."

The teacher's tale

Colopy's reviews from Washington High School in Washington Court House, where he worked before joining Southeastern last summer, were better. He was disciplined with a one-day suspension after allowing an inappropriate picture image to be viewed by students and reprimanded for knowledge of a student prank without intervening to stop it. Other than those issues, Colopy received favorable reviews from the high school principal and was recommended for a new contract on each one.

Colopy, according to his personnel file, had received letters of reprimand from Steyer in October and November. The first noted what Steyer called a "lack of professionalism" and failure to comply with the principal's request to correct methods of assessing students. It also addressed concerns about student test scores during an October exam and failure to grade on a curve.

"According to grades for a recent test posted to ProgressBook [an online gradebook and classroom management tool], dated Oct. 22, 2014, over half of Mr. Colopy's Physical Science students received a grade of F," according to the letter.

Between the two letters, Colopy was accused of what administrators said was an inability to communicate effectively with students, teachers and parents. He also was reprimanded for not taking regular attendance when a student was found walking down Lancaster Road near the high school when he should have been in Colopy's classroom.

The letters and Colopy's teacher performance evaluations, each of which reflected an "ineffective" rating, led to the April 20 Southeastern Local School Board of Education meeting, where Colopy's contract was not renewed for the 2015-16 school year.

During the meeting, which was attended by a member of the Gazette staff, board members heard from Brianna Kempton, a Southeastern junior. Colopy was Kempton's Key Club adviser, but had not had her as a student.

Kempton's defense of Colopy focused on the allegations that he had been unprofessional. Kempton said she had not heard or seen anything unprofessional from Colopy and asked the board to see past any possible personal agendas and keep Colopy on staff.

The aftermath

Kempton declined to comment for this story, and few comments were made from district administrators.

When asked about the circumstances surrounding Colopy's non-renewal, Superintendent Brian Justice said he could not comment on employee personnel matters.

Steyer said he could not comment on student discipline because it would be a "violation of student rights." When asked if he had met with any of the concerned students to discuss Colopy's status with the school, Steyer said he had spoken with students who have expressed concerns about things but could not say if any of the concerns were about the Colopy situation.

"We are doing our best to keep students on task," Steyer said. "I'm not going to comment on individual students or individual employees."

According to Southeastern's dress code, clothing worn by students cannot advertise alcohol or tobacco products, be obscene, profane, drug or gang related or inflammatory.

When it comes to demonstrations, the code says students will not be denied their right to freedom of expression.

"However, the disruption of any school activity will not be allowed, and the expression may not infringe on the rights of others," the code says. "If a student or students feel there is need to organize some form of demonstration, they are encouraged to contact the principal to discuss the proper way to plan such an activity."

Student rights

Mike Brickner, senior policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said if schools can show instances like Micah's are disrupting the learning environment, student actions can be regulated; however, students do have the First Amendment right to political speech as long as it does not disrupt class.

Brickner said many schools have stipulations on expression by claiming it is disturbing the learning environment, which can give administrations a broader category of what counts as disruption.

"Often times, administrations may realize they acted too quickly," Brickner said. "Young people have rights too and it is important they can do so in a civil and mature way."

Alek Morgan, a senior at Southeastern, said since Colopy left, the school has been a "spew of drama."

"I don't think it is about him (Colopy) not coming back," Morgan said. "What it is about now is showing the administration that they cannot bully."

Morgan said no announcement was made to students to inform them they could be taken out of class or disciplined for wearing T-shirts in support of the teacher.

"People want to see change, especially seniors," Morgan said. "We are going to graduate regardless, so we want to see change."

Mike Throne contributed to this story.

Coming Monday

How do school districts handle student protest, disagreement.