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Bradley County teacher faces firing over Internet posts

By: Randall Higgins
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Bradley School Board
Carl Petty

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The attorney for a Bradley County history teacher said he’ll ask immediately for a hearing on allegations his client used a school computer to post inappropriate and malicious messages in a local Internet chat room.

“We are not going to let this drop,” said Carl Petty, who represents Greg Cain. “I guarantee you we will have a full hearing that will expose every single part of this investigation.”

At a meeting Tuesday night, Bradley County school board members voted that Mr. Cain can be fired if it is proved he violated the Acceptable Use Policy for school system computers. He has 30 days to request a formal hearing.

According to the charge, Mr. Cain posted comments under the pseudonyms “Crocs,” “The Rock,” “Ben Dover,” “Susie Homemaker” and “Cerebral Assassin,” and used “inappropriate language, discriminatory content and malicious comments about his colleagues and superiors.”

Mr. Cain is a tenured teacher with 35 years’ experience. His supporters packed the hearing room Tuesday night, though school board Chairman David Kelley said no evidence would be presented or comments allowed.

Nonetheless, board members Mark Grissom and Tom Cassada said they disagreed with how the school administration handled Mr. Cain’s case.

They said an investigation went on for weeks before Mr. Cain was presented with the results and asked to immediately retire, on Bob Taylor’s last day as director of schools.

“I don’t think it should have come this far. I don’t think it should go farther than this,” Mr. Cassada said.

He said Mr. Cain should have been reprimanded. Mr. Grissom agreed.

Mr. Petty said the school system’s Internet policy is ambiguous.

“This whole event was set up by Bob Taylor who then left town, so to speak, on his last day and dumped it on the new director,” Mr. Petty said.

“We believe we will be able to prove at the full hearing there was an ulterior motive behind this entire investigation and why something wasn’t done early on if this violation was so egregious,” Mr. Petty said.

Some of Mr. Cain’s supporters, wearing large buttons to show their support, said after the meeting that other school employees post on the local forum during the school day too.

Student Caleb Taylor was there to support Mr. Cain.

“If Mr. Cain needs to be reprimanded, then all teachers who posted should also be reprimanded,” he said.

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