In an 8 ½ hour meeting Tuesday, Jan. 8, the Wrangell School Board upheld the firing of first year art teacher Shanna Mall.
Starting at 4 p.m., the school board held a public hearing on the potential termination of a high school art teacher well past midnight.
Shanna Mall, was hired by the Wrangell School District this school year. However, she was put on paid administrative leave and received a termination notice last November, before the end of her first semester teaching.
According to Allen Clendaniel, a lawyer representing the school district, Mall was put on leave for numerous reasons under the general umbrella of “incompetence.” Among her reported infractions are using foul language in front of students, being argumentative with staff, and most importantly, sharing a photograph of her teenage son’s genitals with coworkers.
Todd Young, Mall’s legal representation at the hearing, said that the termination was unfair. Due process had been ignored, he said, and Mall was only being threatened with termination because of a contentious relationship with the high school principal.
Several witnesses were called to testify in regards to reports of Mall swearing and being argumentative. According to teacher Jack Carney, during a teacher/staff meeting in October of 2018, Mall said “this place is a (expletive) joke” in reference to the school. David Macri, principal of the high school and middle school, collected 15 written statements from teachers and school staff present at the meeting. Three of them, Carney’s included, said that Mall had, indeed, sworn. Young pointed out that the majority of statements could not confirm she had used foul language.
Another event occurred during a Veteran’s Day service at the high school. The school hosted an event to recognize and thank Wrangell’s veteran population. After the service, students and attending veterans were invited to stay for refreshments. According to Clendaniel, Mall assisted fellow teacher Lu Knapp at the refreshment stand by getting people to form a line. Macri, reportedly, ignored the line and grabbed a cookie off the refreshment table. When Mall told him to get in the line, reportedly, he just laughed and walked off. This supposedly elicted the response from Mall, “Well, that was (expletive).” Knapp could not confirm whether or not Mall had sworn, however.
The major incident, which caused Mall being put on administrative leave, however, was “the Nair incident.” On Veteran’s Day, Mall received a text message from her 18-year-old son, who resides in Anchorage. The text message was a photo of his genitals, which had been burned after he had rubbed Nair hair remover all over the area. Mall then shared this photograph with coworkers Matt Gore and Drew Larrabee.
The question of Mall’s intent by sharing this photo was a big portion of the discussion during the hearing. Young argued that Mall was seeking medical advice from Gore and Larrabee, who Mall said she considered two of her best friends. However, in both Gore’s and Larrabee’s statements during the hearing, they said that Mall was laughing about the situation like it was a joke, and she wanted to share something funny with them. Mall explained this as a nervous tick, saying she laughed when she was anxious about something. Clendaniel, on the other hand, said that context and intent did not matter. She shared an explicit photo with coworkers, in a workplace environment, in the presence of students. Mall herself admitted that she understood she made a mistake, and sought to apologize to her coworkers shortly afterwards. Larrabee and Gore both stated that they were uncomfortable about Mall showing them a picture of her son’s genitals. Gore said in his statement that he had also grown intimidated by Mall due to some other, sometimes explicit conversations with her. It was at this point the matter was brought to the superintendent.
Clendaniel said that there was no question about Mall being guilty of what she was accused of. She admitted, when questioned, to being argumentative and using foul language. She also admitted to sharing an explicit photo. She even sent a letter to Superintendent Debbe Lancaster saying she had made a major mistake, and suggested potential consequences for her actions besides termination. Therefore, Clendaniel said, going through with termination seemed like the appropriate choice.
In Mall’s defense was Young’s argument that Mall was being thrown under the bus for an unfriendly relationship between her and Macri. Mall accused Macri of saying and doing things around her students that made people uncomfortable. One event she alleged was threatening one of her students with a palette knife in art class, saying he was going to cut her “like the Mississippi, deep and wide.” Macri denied this, and other accusations, even though it was corroborated by a student at the hearing. He did admit to saying once that he wanted some exchange students to dig a ditch by his house, but said it was a joke.
Mall was asked by Clendaniel and the board why she did not come forward to complain about these incidents until after she was put on administrative leave. Mall said she did not believe her complaints would make it to the board, unless she asked for a public termination hearing, as she did not trust Macri or Lancaster to send her complaints to the right people. Mall said that this distrust of school authorities, as well as a sense of bullying from other teachers and an “us versus them” attitude amongst the school and parents, made her feel isolated and unwelcome.
During the closing arguments, Clendaniel reiterated that the hearing was in regards to approving or reversing Mall’s termination. Whether she was a good teacher, or whether the high school principal was out to get her, was irrelevant. Mall was definitely in the wrong when it came to the reasons listed for her termination, especially in the case of sharing an explicit photo with coworkers. She demonstrated a lack of common sense, the argument went, and could not be trusted in the classroom. Young, on the other hand, argued that due process had been ignored. The school authorities jumped from verbal and written warnings for her behavior to termination, with no middle ground. Young also said that Mall had proven herself to be an effective teacher in the past, and it was up to the school board if they wanted to reject a proven teacher.
With that, the board broke into executive session for deliberations. After over an hour and a half of reviewing testimonies and evidence, at about 12:30 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 9, it was decided to uphold Mall’s termination. It was also decided to affirm the superintendent’s decision to uphold non-retention of Mall, meaning her contract would not be reapproved for the next school year.
“We appreciate everybody who is here tonight,” said board president Aleisha Mollen. “We know this was not an easy situation for anybody. We did not arrive at this decision lightly.”
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