City says firing of new teacher was within rights; Judge is asked to toss Byrnes suit.Byline: Gary V. Murray WORCESTER - Lawyers for the city will ask a judge to throw out a lawsuit by a former School Department office manager who was fired several weeks after being hired in February as a special education teacher. In a motion filed Sept. 11 to dismiss the Worcester Superior Court case, City Solicitor David M. Moore and Assistant City Solicitor Janet J. McGuiggan said Donna C. Byrnes was not entitled en·ti·tle tr.v. en·ti·tled, en·ti·tling, en·ti·tles 1. To give a name or title to. 2. To furnish with a right or claim to something: to any legal remedy A legal remedy is the means by which a court of law, usually in the exercise of civil law jurisdiction, enforces a right, imposes a penalty, or makes some other court order to impose its will. In Commonwealth common law jurisdictions and related jurisdictions (e.g. under the claims made in the civil suit she filed in June against members of the School Committee, former interim School Superintendent Noun 1. school superintendent - the superintendent of a school system overseer, superintendent - a person who directs and manages an organization Deirdre Loughlin and the city. Ms. Byrnes, who had no teaching experience or state certification when she was hired Feb. 1 at a base salary of more than $60,000 a year, maintained in her lawsuit that her March 27 firing was unlawful and accused the School Committee, the school administration and the city of breach of contract, civil conspiracy, defamation defamation In law, issuance of false statements about a person that injure his reputation or that deter others from associating with him. Libel and slander are the legal subcategories of defamation. Libel is defamation in print, pictures, or any other visual symbols. and violation of state wage laws. Ms. Byrnes, represented by lawyer Karen L. Stern, said she was deprived of due process in the school administration's effort to quell quell tr.v. quelled, quell·ing, quells 1. To put down forcibly; suppress: Police quelled the riot. 2. what her lawyer called a "firestorm fire·storm n. 1. A fire of great size and intensity that generates and is fed by strong inrushing winds from all sides: the firestorm that leveled Hiroshima after the atomic blast. 2. of media scrutiny" prompted by a Telegram & Gazette story about her transfer from an office manager's job to a teaching position for which school officials later said she was not qualified. As part of its argument for dismissal of the lawsuit, the city solicitor's office contends that as a new teacher with fewer than 90 calendar days of experience, Ms. Byrnes was subject to termination "without notice and without a statement of cause." In her written opposition to the motion to dismiss, Ms. Stern urged the court to allow her client's case to go forward to "prevent a manifest injustice to Donna Byrnes." Ms. Stern said school officials were aware when they hired Ms. Byrnes that she was not certified See certification. but had a state waiver The voluntary surrender of a known right; conduct supporting an inference that a particular right has been relinquished. The term waiver is used in many legal contexts. allowing her to teach. "Only when a firestorm of media scrutiny descended upon the Worcester School Committee after a newspaper story ran in the Worcester Telegram for hiring Donna Byrnes as a Special Education Teacher did the Superintendent of Schools suddenly terminate Donna Byrnes' employment on the grounds that there was too much negative media coverage and too many negative telephone calls coming in to the school system regarding her employment," Ms. Stern wrote. No date has been set for a court hearing on the city's motion to dismiss Ms. Byrnes' lawsuit. |
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