Muscogee teacher accused of allowing classroom fight between 2 girls suspended
The Muscogee County School District’s board has accepted the superintendent’s recommendation to suspend a teacher after he allegedly allowed students to fight in his classroom.
“There is a finding of insubordination, willful neglect of duties, inciting or encouraging students to violate rules,” board chairwoman Pat Hugley Green of District 1 announced as Tuesday night’s three-hour hearing concluded. The board deliberated for about 15 minutes.
The rejection of Anthony Gibson’s appeal means the board upholds the Baker Middle School social studies teacher’s punishment: a three-day suspension without pay, a transfer to an undisclosed school, mentoring and additional training.
The case involves whether Gibson properly acted before, during and after the Aug. 26 fight between two girls in his classroom.
A video of the fight, recorded on a student’s cellphone, was shown as part of the MCSD administration’s case, presented by attorneys Mariel Smith and Melanie Slaton from the Hall Booth Smith law firm’s Columbus office.
“The video is the best evidence in this matter,” Smith told the board.
Although the video was available to the public in the boardroom and on MCSD’s YouTube channel during the hearing, it no longer is online.
“The hearing was required to be public and, legally, it is not required to maintain a video in the public domain,” Karen Jones, the board’s executive assistant told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email.
The L-E has filed a request for the video under the Georgia Open Records Act.
MCSD’s case
Along with testimony from witnesses and documents, the video shows Gibson allowed the students to fight in his classroom, including the moving of desks so they had clear space, Smith told the board.
“They’re essentially creating a fight zone,” she said.
In the video, Gibson is heard telling the students, “Y’all have 5 minutes” to fight before he would respond, Smith said. Gibson did not intervene.
In an email Gibson received that day before the class, the school counselor alerted him that the students who ended up fighting were “having issues,” Smith said, and he shouldn’t let them sit next to each other.
Two minutes later, Gibson wrote in a reply email to the school counselor, “No problem,” MCSD human resources director Brenda Reed said during her testimony.
After the fight broke out, Gibson didn’t call the principal or assistant principal but instead called the academic coach, Smith said.
In the video, Gibson is heard telling the students, “I’m recording,” Smith said.
MCSD’s interviews with the students found that they felt Gibson “emboldened them to go ahead” with the fight, Smith said.
“Nothing was done to de-escalate the situation or prevent the fight,” Reed said.
Neither student was injured in the fight, Smith said, “but it is disturbing.”
Teacher’s defense
Gibson represented himself during the hearing. He didn’t call any witnesses.
This is his seventh year working in MCSD. He previously taught at Hardaway High School, where he also coached track and junior varsity football. He started working at Baker during last school year.
“I’d like to think I’m a pretty good teacher,” Gibson told the board. “… I believe I know how to work with students. … This is one incident, and then it’s blown up.”
Gibson said he told the students, “If you guys fight, they (administrators) will be down here within 5 minutes, and you are going to be in trouble. … What teacher in their right mind would want their students to fight? That’s insane.”
Gibson said he told the students to not fight and that they would get in trouble if they did fight.
“The video came after I said all that,” he said. “… Before we even sat down and started class, this happened.”
The reason why he told the students he was recording the fight, Gibson said, was “to scare them because then you would know who started the fight.” But he didn’t record the fight, Gibson said.
Some of the students assigned to his classroom that day, including the two students who fought, came from another teacher’s classroom, Gibson said.
Students moved their desks, Gibson said, because the classroom was infested with ants.
This was the first fight to have broken out in his classroom, but the potential for a fight is a constant concern, Gibson said.
“I almost feel like a glorified babysitter,” he said, “trying to stop these kids from fighting every single day.”
Gibson said he was taught at Columbus State University to not break up fights, especially involving girls. Baker assistant principal Antron Murray, however, testified that he also was trained at CSU but never was taught such a classroom discipline strategy.
Board member Mark Cantrell of District 6 asked what MCSD’s standard is for how male teachers should handle a fight between girls. Baker principal Ramona Horn said the standard doesn’t address gender.
“It’s all about getting support there as soon as possible so that we can respond to whatever the situation is,” Horn told the board. “I can’t direct a teacher to be physical or physically break up a fight. That’s why the verbal commands are the first thing that needs to take place because we all can do that.”
Gibson said he didn’t call the principal or assistant principal because “I knew it would take too long” for them to respond. He instead called the academic coach when the students started going toward each other, he said.
“That’s why you don’t see me in the video,” he said, “because I’m walking toward the door.”
Justification for punishment
During his cross examination of MCSD central region chief Matt Bell, Gibson asked, “Why not fire me?”
“A bend in the road doesn’t necessarily mean it ends the road,” said Bell, who was Hardaway’s principal while Gibson worked there, noting Gibson has a history of responding positively to constructive criticism.
Bell testified earlier, “Mr. Gibson actually worked at improving his craft as a teacher and coach and did a really good job, in my opinion, with instructional strategies.”
Lewis told the board that not firing Gibson was extending him grace because of his good evaluations and Bell’s assessment of him.
“In light of all that,” Lewis said, “he was a professional that could be mentored, coached to be the kind of professional we want.”
