The Akron Legal News

University must pay damages to professor who told students he should shoot them

JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: July 20, 2012

A Franklin County appellate panel recently ruled that a former Bowling Green State University tenured professor was entitled to damages after the school breached its employment contract by suspending him without pay for making comments about shooting students.

The 10th District Court of Appeals rejected BGSU’s arguments that Norman Eckel could not recover damages because it did not breach his employee contract when it suspended him without pay for telling students he should bring in a gun and shoot them all. The appellate panel, however, did find that the Court of Claims of Ohio did not properly factor in sick pay that Eckel would have had to use because he had a stroke during the time of suspension.

“Because the evidence supports the court of claims’ conclusion that BGSU breached its employment contract with plaintiff and acted arbitrarily in suspending plaintiff without pay, and the court of claims properly concluded plaintiff is entitled to an award of back-pay for the summer and fall 2005 semesters, but the court of claims failed to consider the effect of plaintiff’s sick pay on that award, we affirm in part and reverse in part,” 10th District Judge Peggy Bryant wrote for the court.

Case summary details that Eckel had been teaching at BGSU for 26 years when he told a class during the 2005 spring semester that he should “shoot you guys,” and that “two clips ought to do it.”

Eckel maintained that he was joking and that the students were aware it was a joke, however several students called the provost’s office to report the comment.

He was called into the dean’s office, where he admitted to the comments and the dean suspended him with pay while the situation was investigated.

An investigation revealed that some students were “shaken by the remark” and that Eckel had been growing more frustrated by his students for about 15 years, according to the summary.

The dean notified Eckel about the findings and that he would be suspended from May 7, 2005 to Jan. 1, 2006 without pay.

In September 2005, Eckel suffered a debilitating stroke and so a grievance petition was not filed until January 2006, records show.

After a hearing in November 2006, the Faculty Personnel and Conciliation Committee concluded the dean should not have suspended him without pay and the matter went to the provost and vice president of academic affairs, who found the suspension was appropriate.

On appeal, the Ohio Court of Claims ruled in Eckel’s favor and awarded him damages for $87,978.88.

BGSU appealed to the 10th District, claiming it had not breached its contract with Eckel, that Eckel could not collect damages, and that the court of claims failed to properly factor in Eckel’s sick days resulting from his stroke.

The three-judge panel found BGSU’s charter did not address disciplinary measures for tenured professors, but that suspension without pay violated Eckel’s tenure rights. It held that because Eckel was tenured, he had a right to a year’s salary unless his actions were one of the specific events listed in the tenured section of the charter.

“Because none of those events occurred, BGSU violated plaintiff’s right of tenure, as specified in Section B-I.C.3 of the academic charter, in suspending plaintiff without pay,” Bryant stated.

The appellate judges held that because the dean failed to follow procedures outlined in the charter when he disciplined Eckel, that Eckel was entitled to recover damages. They also stated that the court of claims did err when awarding the damages because it factored in Eckel’s pay for teaching the first summer semester, but he would have taught the second summer semester. The judges corrected that ruling, and found further error with the sick pay.

They found that BGSU already had paid Eckel for his unused sick leave, but had he not been suspended he would have been forced to use more of his allotted days. They stated that because the damages were awarded as backpay, the time must be viewed as though the employer had honored the contract and the additional sick days must be accounted for.

“This matter must be returned to the court of claims to calculate the damages award, taking into account the effect of plaintiff’s illness on his sick days,” Bryant continued.

“Having overruled BGSU’s ... assignments of error... but having sustained BGSU’s eighth assignment of error, we affirm in part and reverse in part the judgment of the court of claims, we modify the damages decision to reflect that plaintiff was awarded damages based on his being scheduled to teach the summer two session in 2005, and we remand the case to the court of claims to consider the effect plaintiff’s stroke and corresponding need to take sick leave during the fall 2005 semester had on the damages to which plaintiff is entitled.”

Fellow 10th District Judge William Klatt and Presiding Judge Susan Brown joined Bryant to form the majority.

The case is cited Eckel v. Bowling Green State University, case No. 2012-Ohio-3164.

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