AFTER POT ARREST OUTSIDE GENTLEMAN'S CLUB, SOUTH JERSEY TEACHER WANTS JOB BACK

VINELAND -- A former Vineland Public Schools teacher, fired after a
2010 arrest for marijuana possession outside an Atlantic City
gentleman's club, has filed a lawsuit to win back his job.

Jeremy Rasmussen filed the suit Oct. 11 in Cumberland County Superior
Court, noting the drug charge subsequently was dismissed. The suit
calls for "immediate reinstatement and restoration" to his teaching
position, full reinstatement of fringe benefits, back pay, legal
costs, and compensatory and punitive damages.

Rasmussen's 10-page suit charges his termination was the latest in a
series of retaliations after he raised concerns about the school
district's practices and charged that last year several Vineland High
School teachers were "violating the grading process and creating
fraudulent or improper grades" on standardized English final exams.

"We feel very strongly there was never any retaliation by the board
or administration," school board solicitor Bob DeSanto said when
contacted this week.

DeSanto noted the school board and administration stand by an Oct. 24
decision by Public Employment Relations Commission arbitrator Mattye
M. Gandel that the board had "just cause" to terminate Rasmussen.

In her ruling, Gandel noted Rasmussen "acted in a manner unbecoming a
teacher when he was in possession of marijuana the night of Sept. 3,
2010, in front of Casey's Cabaret in Atlantic City."

The criminal case against Rasmussen was dismissed Nov. 22, Gandel
noted, because the state could not provide a lab report confirming
the substance taken from Rasmussen the night of his arrest was marijuana.

However, Gandel wrote, after the charge was dismissed, the "final lab
test performed by a forensic scientist confirmed that the material
was marijuana."

Gandel also noted Rasmussen had several opportunities to comment but
"was not willing to talk" at the February grievance hearing or at his
most recent arbitration hearing.

Rasmussen was employed as a Vineland teacher from October 2008 to
December 2010, starting out at Vineland High School and later at
Landis Intermediate School. He was hired through the alternative
route, meaning he didn't hold the traditional teaching certificate.

To comply with state requirements, Rasmussen completed the required
educational courses but the district "failed to provide" required
mentoring and training, he said in the lawsuit. When he complained to
supervisors, Rasmussen alleges, he was not rehired the following year.

But at a hearing requested by Rasmussen, the school board overturned
the administration's decision and ordered Rasmussen's employment be
renewed for the 2009-10 school year.

During that school year, Rasmussen noted, he received ratings of
"distinguished" or "proficient."

In spring 2010, the district sent out nonrenewal notices to 157
nontenured teachers as precaution due to financial issues. In May of
that year, Superintendent Maryann Banks ordered standardized final
exams be independently graded by two teachers to ensure consistency
and adherence to state educational achievement standards, according
to Rasmussen's suit.

At that time, Rasmussen, then a VHS teacher, said he observed
fraudulent grade fixing by teachers on final exams and reported it to
his superiors and Banks, according to his suit.

Rasmussen was one of six nontenured teachers and the lone English
teacher not rehired that year, according to his suit. The district
subsequently posted three positions for which Rasmussen was qualified, he said.

"Though the district disguised its actions as a 'reduction in force,'
the district terminated Rasmussen in retaliation for his exposing the
illegal and fraudulent grading process at the high school," the suit charges.

In July 2010, Rasmussen petitioned the state Department of Education
for relief, and the Office of Administrative Law ordered the district
to hold a hearing on his claim of an improper termination, the suit states.

Instead the board, as way of settlement, agreed to rehire Rasmussen
on the condition he "release any claims he gned an agreement, which
was approved by the board Sept. 8, 2010, the week he was arrested.

Rasmussen was terminated as a Landis Intermediate School teacher Dec.
13, after being suspended with pay immediately following his arrest.

His suit alleges the district took no action on his grade-fixing
complaint. But the district hired Verita LLC, a workplace complaint
investigation firm based in Malvern, Pa., to look into his
allegation. Its investigation found no improprieties, according to a
report submitted to the district.

When contacted this week, Rasmussen said he had no comment.might have
against the school
district," according to the suit. Rasmussen si