Teacher files suit against school district

Jessica Garrison

NEWPORT-MESA -- An Andersen Elementary School teacher who was

removed from her classroom this fall and placed on administrative leave

has filed a lawsuit charging that district officials violated her due

process rights and her right to privacy.

In addition, Patricia Wood, who filed a lawsuit in Superior Court on

Monday as “Teacher Doe,” also alleged that the district violated the

state’s open-meeting laws and the state education code when it decided to

remove her from the classroom.

As part of Wood’s claim that the district had violated her privacy,

Wood’s lawyer, Greg Petersen, submitted articles about Wood published in

the Daily Pilot and the Orange County Register to the court.

The district’s lawyer, Spencer Covert, countered that he had filed a

response to the lawsuit in Superior Court. The Pilot was unable to obtain

that response by the end of the day Tuesday and Covert, along with

district officials, refused to comment further on the matter.

Wood, who has taught in the district for the last 30 years, was the

subject of a petition drive signed by more than 90 Andersen parents last

spring.

Parents said that Wood, though once a great teacher, should be removed

from the classroom because “she could no longer teach our children

effectively and in a way that best serves them.”

Parents charged that Wood’s eccentric habits -- which they said

included wearing a mask and gloves to protect her from students’ germs,

leaving children unsupervised and driving in an unsafe manner near school

-- meant she should no longer teach.

District officials, citing state confidentiality laws, refused to

comment on the parents’ petition, or any of their complaints against

Wood.

But according to Petersen, district officials told Wood she could not

return to the classroom because she is “mentally ill.” District officials

refused to comment on this allegation.

Also as part of the lawsuit, Petersen asked the judge to grant a

temporary restraining order preventing a panel of district-appointed

psychiatrists from examining Wood to determine if she suffers from mental

illness. Petersen contended that such an examination amounted to a gross

violation of Wood’s privacy.

“Just as a search warrant cannot be granted on facts that are stale,

improbable ... so does the board’s claimed decision fail,” the lawsuit

states. “The board sets forth no factual basis for their opinions on

mental illness or facts showing impairment of plaintiff’s duties as a

teacher.”

Petersen also submitted a letter from Dr. Barry Chaitin, a clinical

professor of psychiatry at UCI’s Medical School, in which Chaitin

declared Wood is not suffering from “significant mental illness which

would render her unfit for the profession as a teacher.”

At a hearing Monday, the judge postponed a decision on whether Wood

should undergo a psychiatric exam until Nov. 18, when both Wood and the

school district will be back in court to decide the matter.