Two opposed the principal over trips with students. Parents picket for his ouster.
By KELLEY BENHAM
Published August 5, 2003
[Times photo: Dirk Shadd]
One of the picketing parents, Ben Baucom, talks Monday to two students who say they have been on trips with principal Dick Baker.
LARGO - Two teachers and an assistant principal at Community Christian School were fired Monday during the morning devotional, further embroiling a school already torn over a principal's numerous trips to Disney with middle school girls.
"The board and administration felt this was best to retain unity and harmony for our children," board president Maria Gustin told parents Monday night at the annual open house.
Some parents responded by shouting at the board and then each other. Outside, another group of parents picketed for the resignation of principal Dick Baker, who is on a 60-day paid leave while the school's board investigates the trips.
The fired teachers are Bible instructor Vicky Jones and athletic director Glenn Walker. They were among several teachers who had written letters asking for Baker's resignation. Both had been quoted in the St. Petersburg Times, along with other teachers, and had appeared at parent meetings.
A clause in their contract says they will "never in any way have anything derogatory to say about the school" except privately to school officials.
"If they have disputes, grievances, problems, they are supposed to bring it to the board of directors," said school attorney Donald Giffin.
The fired assistant principal, Kathie Erwin, was terminated without cause, Giffin said. Erwin, who runs the school's Discovery program for learning disabled students, had no comment Monday.
"There doesn't have to be a reason," Giffin said. "We just felt it was in the best interest of the school that she be terminated. We just did."
At least two other teachers were told they could keep their jobs as long as they did not say anything else publicly.
Knowing that, teacher Angel Lee had this to say Monday afternoon:
"As a Christian, my job is to stand up for what I believe in and stand firm in my faith and say this is wrong," said Lee, daughter of Vicky Jones.
She doesn't think her contract is valid and doesn't think she violated it. If she did, she doesn't think God will mind.
"We are bound by something higher," she said.
Teacher Kristin Sousa said she loves the school, despite having asked for Baker's resignation.
"They said if I spoke out again to the media I wouldn't have a job," she said. "I am speaking out because of the children. I have to be held accountable for that, by my beliefs and by God."
The turmoil started when the Times wrote about a Largo police investigation into the Disney trips. The investigation found no crime, but the police report and Times stories described a school where a group of girls known as the Princesses went to Disney dozens of times with Baker, sometimes without other adult chaperones.
Girls said they had shared a room with him and one reported that he wore Disney pajamas. Baker hugged, massaged and tickled students in and out of school, police said.
Jones said in her letter seeking Baker's resignation that Disney had become an idol at the school and that many students who were not Princesses felt like second-class citizens. She cited scripture that says "Give no appearance of evil."
With the opening of school 12 hours away, parents handed out copies of the police report and other parents shouted in Baker's defense.
One former student ripped the report apart in the parking lot.
"All this is ridiculous," said Kristen Wichlenski, 18, who attended CCS in elementary and went to Disney several times with Baker. "I don't understand how you call yourselves Christians."
Many parents said they were afraid to send their children to a school where they suspect that only Baker's supporters will remain employed.
"What do I do now?" said Parrish Anderson.
She and other parents have tried unsuccessfully to obtain a school budget and other documents and to push for a new board election. They say the current board was not properly elected and, therefore, is without authority.
"These people are really vindictive and I'm scared of that for her," she said. "Is anybody there thinking about the children?"
Some parents said the teachers had it coming. Several said they should have been suspended or put on leave like Baker.
Many parents said they were afraid to say anything negative about Baker or the school for fear teachers would treat their children unfairly.
Karen Erbe decided to pull her child out when she heard about the firings.
"That meant the followers of Dr. Baker are going to rule the school," she said. "I don't want my children in that atmosphere."
The fired teachers had long suspected what was coming. Last week, several who had called for Baker's resignation met before their first day at work and prayed together from Ephesians: Put on the whole armor of God . . . For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Going to work felt like walking into the lion's den, they said.
All week, they felt stares and silences. There were whispers of support and of condemnation. A few of the Princesses went door-to-door throughout the school, asking teachers to sign a paper stating whether they wanted Baker to stay or go. Erwin found a menacing note in her mailbox. Jones and other teachers said they had been followed after work.
Quitting would have been simpler, they said, but they did not want to leave the kids.
Saturday, one of the Princesses had confronted Jones for speaking out, but Jones told her: "I love you, I'm laying my job on the line for you."
Monday, acting administrator Eleanor Ladd pulled Jones out of the morning devotional after a prayer for the school.
Giffin handed her a letter and told her she had 20 minutes to clear out her belongings. Later, when police came and negotiated the release of her possessions, she sat in a church room and tried not to cry.
"I have not lost a job, I've lost my kids," said Jones, who earned $18,000 a year with a doctorate. "I promised them I would be there.
"But I had to show the kids that we care about what happens to them, that not everyone is pushing this under the rug."
