A 海角换妻 high school teacher who was fired for a racist lesson plan three years ago is headed back to the classroom with more than $250,000 in back pay after winning a nearly three-year legal battle over her dismissal.
The 海角换妻 Technical Education and Career System fired the teacher, Nancy Axon, for violating the school system鈥檚 non-discrimination policy after she gave a set of lessons on stereotypes about Black and Hispanic people during Black History Month at Platt Technical High School in Milford.
Andres Garcia remembers his shock when he saw Axon write a list of stereotypes about Black men on the whiteboard 鈥� words like 鈥済ang,鈥� 鈥淜FC food,鈥� 鈥淛ordan clothes,鈥� 鈥渓eaving children,鈥� 鈥渘o paying child support鈥� and two variations of the N-word.
鈥淪he didn鈥檛 give us a warning,鈥� Garcia said. 鈥淣ormal teachers would be like, oh, you know, this uses some profanity in this section.鈥�
As part of an unapproved lesson plan in the majority-minority school, Axon asked students to read a book called 鈥淏rother to Brother鈥� and then contribute stereotypes for the list.
Another student, Edwin Solis, snapped a photo.
鈥淪he would ask the class, but then she would also like, have her own input on it,鈥� Solis said. 鈥淚 thought it was out of pocket. I thought it was straight-up disrespectful.鈥�
According to both former students, it wasn鈥檛 the first time a racist incident happened in Axon鈥檚 class. Garcia and Solis said she鈥檇 regularly call students by nicknames she came up with related to their ethnicity 鈥� like calling Garcia 鈥済ringo鈥� for being Guatemalan but not fluent in Spanish.
鈥淢s. Axon is a teacher,鈥� Garcia said. 鈥淪he has to be professional about this, and this was very unprofessional.鈥�
After a pair of interns heard students talking about the incident,
鈥淚 personally feel attack (sic) because it was only 2 (sic) of us African Americans in the classroom, and she keep looking at us,鈥� one student wrote in a statement. 鈥淚 feel like she shouldn鈥檛 use those words regardless of the discussion.鈥�
海角换妻 reached out to both Nancy Axon and her lawyer, but neither returned our messages. Axon told administrators in the investigation report that she was not a racist. She also denied using the N-word and said she was dumbfounded that the students were offended because she had taught a similar lesson at other schools. Axon also said in the report that she was trying to connect with her students because they are 鈥渞eluctant readers that live in housing projects with drugs and gun violence.鈥�
The investigation concluded that Axon violated the school system鈥檚 non-discrimination policy. By the end of the school year, the 20-year teacher was terminated.
But Axon fought back through her union 鈥� ultimately winning her case. The arbitrator decided that although discipline was warranted, the school system rarely terminates teachers. That made her firing disproportionally severe.
Labor and employment attorney Floyd Dugas, who was not involved in this case, said arbitrators typically look for progressive discipline 鈥� a documented verbal warning, then a formal warning, then a suspension, before termination. But in Axon鈥檚 case, she was terminated without warning.
鈥淐ertainly in this day and age, you know, use of the N-word and making racially insensitive statements are given a more heightened level of scrutiny than they have in the past,鈥� Dugas said. 鈥淪till, arbitrators, I think, are going to look to the process of progressive discipline.鈥�
Dugas says termination without progressive discipline is usually reserved for incidents like physical assault, stealing, insubordination and sleeping on the job.
鈥淚've had many cases where I've successfully defended in arbitration the termination of teachers and police officers and any other employees.鈥� Dugas said. 鈥淏ut if you're rushed to it without doing the foundational work, you can run into a problem, as happened here.鈥�
The state argued, however, that Axon so severely violated the school鈥檚 non-discrimination clause, it would go against public policy to reinstate her.
鈥淚t just was clearly offensive to the students, highly disruptive, and she didn't ever apologize,鈥� attorney Beth Margulies said in a November 2020 court hearing. 鈥淭he students in the class that had been complaining 鈥� she called them a wolf pack. She wanted them not to be in her class anymore.鈥�
For Solis, it鈥檚 a disappointing outcome.
鈥淪he does not need her job back,鈥� Solis said. 鈥淏ecause what if she does the same thing?鈥�
Axon is set to start teaching at A.I. Prince Technical High School in Hartford later this month and is currently fighting to make the state pay for her legal fees.
