WEAC Fights for Teacher Who Had Porn on His School Computer

WEAC is venue shopping.

It’s perhaps the most unusual twist yet in what has become a genuine legal saga over how much pornography Zellner might have viewed on his Cedarburg High School computer and whether he should have been fired.

The latest development is a request by Zellner’s lawyer for the Supreme Court to send Zellner’s termination case back to the state Court of Appeals, despite the fact that it was the appeals court that fast-tracked the case to the Supreme Court.

“I’m mystified; I’ve never seen such a thing in 30-some years of practicing,” said Steven Rynecki, a Milwaukee lawyer who represents the Cedarburg School District. “It seems presumptuous to tell the Supreme Court what they should take.”

[...]

The appeals court decision coincided with a Supreme Court election in which Justice Louis Butler Jr. - who was heavily supported by the state’s largest teachers union - was defeated by Circuit Court Judge Michael Gableman, an outcome observers say could tip the balance of power on the high court.

Jonen is employed by the union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council.

On April 11, 10 days after the election, Jonen asked the Supreme Court not to take the Zellner case.

And, of course, this is only getting more expensive for the taxpayers.

Zellner also has a federal civil rights lawsuit pending.

That suit, filed April 16 by another attorney, asks for $9 million from the Cedarburg School District, saying Zellner was retaliated against for speaking out as a union leader and was improperly fired.

WEAC loves to prance around and cluck their tongues when people complain about how hard it is to fire a public school teacher.  They say that it’s easy - all they ask is for due process.  But when a teacher is fired because he had porn on his school computer, they force the taxpayers to spend tens of thousands of dollars to litigate it.  Once again, their actions speak louder than words. 

One more side note, this is the excuse that this teacher gave in his federal case:

Zellner said in the federal suit that he did an image search of the word blonde on his school computer to see whether the School District had installed software to block pornography.

Um.  No.  If your do an image search for “blonde,” you may get some explicit images.  You do not, however, get 1,500 images in a single search.  That takes some more effort.  Also, I’d be interested in seeing if all of the images on his work computer were only blonds - and were only thumbnails.  Obviously, he is relying on the hope that the federal judge will be completely ignorant of computers and the internet.