(UPDATE: 4 p.m.) MANSFIELD — Judge James DeWeese has ordered the Mansfield City School District to pay $7,700 to Fuzzie Davis for the district’s failure to provide documents required under Ohio’s Public Records law, according to Davis’ attorney, Beverly Farlow of Farlow & Associates.
According to Farlow, Davis is contesting Mansfield’s effort to terminate her employment as an assistant principal with the district.
“Mansfield had withheld these documents, saying that they were in a ‘discipline file,’ not in a ‘personnel’ file, and thus had not been requested correctly, although they provided them after Ms. Davis filed her Mandamus Complaint,” Farlow said.
The legal processes began after Mansfield’s April 17 board of education meeting, where the board unanimously voted to terminate Davis as assistant principal of Mansfield Senior High School.
Davis appealed the termination and requested a public hearing, which will take place on Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the school board offices, 856 W. Cook Road.
”Mansfield City Schools leadership began an immediate investigation after being informed that a Mansfield Senior High School staff member allegedly made inappropriate comments to some students and these comments had allegedly not been reported pursuant to law or board policy by three other staff members,” the district stated in a press release regarding Davis’ termination.
Davis was first placed on administrative leave on Jan. 25. Fuzzie has spent her entire career with the Mansfield City Schools which began in 1985 — a few months shy of 33 years.
According to Farlow, the public records case came about when she made a records request to the Mansfield City School District in preparation for Davis’ appeal case, and received a sparse amount of documents in return, with no documents that pertained to the investigation. When she attempted to resolve the situation via e-mail, she was told her records request was not sufficiently clear.
“I thought, how do you get any more clear? I’m asking for her personnel file,” Farlow said. “After going back and forth, I felt they were playing a semantics game with me.”
Records requests for the Mansfield City School District are handled through the office of Treasurer Robert Kuehnle, who was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.
Farlow took the district to court via a Mandamus Complaint. She said the district’s defense was that the documents pertaining to the investigation were not in a “personnel” file but rather a “discipline” file.
“The reality is, everything is supposed to be in the personnel file other than personal health records,” Farlow said. “Everything else is supposed to be there for public inspection.”
After the initial hearing with Judge DeWeese, the district was ordered to turn over the relevant documentation. Farlow then received 105 pages of 77 different documents.
The most significant piece of evidence was a letter dated Jan. 26 – the day after Davis was placed on administrative leave – from Richland County Children Services determining the incident was not a reportable situation.
According to Chris Elswick, a Mansfield school board member, the form by Richland County Children’s Services did not call it an unreportable incident, but rather an incident that did not require more in investigation.
“I argued that that was a smoking gun,” Farlow said. “Why withhold that letter? That document was one of the ones they withheld.”
The statutory penalty for withholding documents is $100 per document – at 77 documents withheld, that’s how the district’s $7,700 penalty came about.
According to Farlow, Davis’ termination appeal hearing will conclude with an independent referee making a finding of fact and providing a recommendation to the board as to what further action is appropriate. The board will then make a final decision based on the finding of fact.
“The board is going to have to put up witnesses and documents to prove they have a justification for terminating Fuzzie’s contract of employment,” Farlow explained. “Then we have the opportunity to put up witnesses saying this doesn’t make any sense.”
A separate case connected to the district’s failure to provide public documents has been set for hearing July 26, on the issue of attorney’s fees that Mansfield will be required to pay as further relief to Ms. Davis.
“I’m thrilled for Fuzzie because she has been treated very, very badly throughout this entire situation, and finally something positive has happened for her,” Farlow said.
