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Teacher appeals loss of his job
Lanzo’s discipline included twisting the hair and pulling the ears of male students.
CAMPBELL — Raymond J. Lanzo, a fifth-grade teacher fired by the Campbell Board of Education for conduct unbecoming a teacher, has appealed his dismissal in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Specifically, the board, at its Wednesday meeting, did not renew Lanzo’s contract because he used corporal punishment in the classroom that included nonsexual inappropriate touching of students.
According to board documents, Lanzo, a teacher at the middle school for five years, habitually twisted the hair and pulled the ears of male students as a form of discipline. As a result, Lanzo was disciplined by his immediate supervisor and Schools Superintendent Thomas Robey several times over the last few years for that behavior and insubordination.
The incident that moved the board to not renew his contract occurred in November 2007, in which the mother of a fifth-grade male student complained that Lanzo grabbed the shirt or arm of her son and then moved his hands to the face, chin and/or neck of the student.
As part of the investigation, the school district also looked into allegations that Lanzo had twisted the hair and pulled the ears of other male fifth-graders, according to a report submitted by George A. Gbur of East Liverpool, a hearing referee appointed by the Ohio Department of Education.
In Lanzo’s appeal, filed on his behalf by Atty. Cornelius J. Baasten of Canton, he asked the court to order the board to rehire him, pay any loss of salary and benefits incurred, and pay his costs and attorney fees and further relief the court deems just.
The basis of the appeal, Baasten said, is that the school board failed to conduct the second evaluation during the 2007-08 school year, as required when the board desires not to renew a teacher’s contract.
In other action, the board hired Jacquelyn D. Hampton as assistant principal at Memorial High School, effective for the 2008-09 school year.
Hampton has taught in the English department at the high school for two years and previously was a teacher and a small-school principal at Shaw High School in East Cleveland.
Hampton, of Canfield, graduated from Ohio State University in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in education and from Ashland University in 1999 with a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction.
alcorn@vindy.com