MCSD teacher involved in physical altercation with student has termination hearing
The Muscogee County School Board has upheld the superintendent’s firing of a teacher.
During a called meeting Monday, the board heard John Savell’s appeal of his termination from his job as a social studies teacher at Kendrick High School.
Savell was dismissed after three incidents that amounted to what Melanie Slaton, the lead lawyer presenting the Muscogee County School District administration’s case, called a pattern of inappropriate conduct.
Those incidents were:
- On Nov. 2, 2018, Savell threw a book in the direction of a misbehaving student. The book allegedly barely missed the student’s head. Savell said he “lost my cool,” but denied trying to hit the student with the book.
- That same day, in the same classroom, Savell allegedly kicked a misbehaving student’s chair. The student reported that Savell’s leg contacted him, but Savell said he “simply raised my foot” to get the student to pay attention.
- A year later, on Nov. 1, 2019, while he monitored after-school detention in the cafeteria, Savell allegedly got into a physical altercation with a misbehaving student. Savell and the student dispute who was the aggressor. Administrators say the surveillance video clearly indicates Savell was the aggressor. The board saw the video, which doesn’t have audio, but the public wasn’t allowed to see it, Slaton said, because it depicts students who haven’t been blacked out and would be considered an invasion of their privacy.
Savell, who represented himself during the hearing, was hired in August 2018. He didn’t have tenure and was working provisionally because he wasn’t certified.
He insisted he wasn’t properly trained to handle these incidents, and he argued that he didn’t make the same mistakes since he was counseled about them.
Kendrick principal Alonzo James and MCSD East Region human resources coordinator Latoria Aikin-Jackson, however, testified that Savell was trained on the protocol and signed the policy review as every teacher does each year.
According to his LinkedIn page, Savell doesn’t have any college degrees in education. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1999 and a master’s degree in military history in 2002, both from the University of South Alabama.
He served for a year (2008-09) in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army, then worked for two years (2009-11) as deputy director of the National Infantry Museum, for one year (2015-16) as assistant manager at Carmike 15 Cinema, for 20 months (2016-18) as giant screen theater director at the NIM and two months as assistant manager of Houlihan’s restaurant in the downtown Columbus Marriott hotel, according to his LinkedIn page.
The school board deliberated in closed session for about 10 minutes. The decision was unanimous among the eight board members in attendance. Countywide representative Kia Chambers was absent.
This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 9:31 PM.
