Army Reserve Captain John Parker came home from his second deployment to find himself without his teaching position next year.

NewsChannel 5 – Parker says that before he left, “I just told all the kids, ‘Hey, I’ll be going, but I’ll be back.’”

He went back to Wilson Central High School after his first year-long tour in Afghanistan.
And, after a second tour of duty there, he expected to return to the classroom again.

Parker should have had no problem going back to work thanks to a special federal law that protects soldiers like Parker.

It guarantees that, when they come home from their deployment, they’ll get their old jobs back for at least a year.

But just one month after Parker went back to work, the Wilson County School system told him his teaching contract was not being renewed and he was out of a job.

Wilson County Director of Schools Dr. Jim Duncan, the man who sent the letter informing Parker that he was being let go, insists that “he was not fired.”

Duncan maintains that the teacher-turned-soldier was told not to return to school the next year because there just weren’t enough students signed up for Parker’s class.

But Duncan also admits that he had problems with Parker being sent to Afghanistan not once, but twice.

Captain Parker fully deserves to continue in his position as a teacher and coach. He has a direct hand in shaping and teaching the future of our nation. A person such as Captain Parker is an excellent role model for our young men and women. His dismissal, no matter if Dr. Duncan is willing to call it that, is unacceptable. Dr. Ducan’s statements do not make it seem that Captain Parker’s position was taken due to lack of student enrollment. Read the rest of the article from NewsChannel 5 for more.

Dr. Duncan’s comments in the NewsChannel 5 report have prompted me to write an email to Dr. Duncan. The full email can be found below the fold.

Via Blackfive where there are tons of comments and replies from Dr. Duncan to emails sent by Blackfive’s readers.

Update: Sorry for such a quick update, but the email I sent may or may not get through to Dr. Duncan. The school system’s mail server thinks my email is spam.

SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
host wcschools.com [66.4.18.130]: 550 At this time your email has been identified as SPAM and is being held until the recipient confirms that the email is legitimate. After the recipient accepts your email address as a valid source, your emails to this address will no longer be identified as SPAM and will need no additional action from the intended recipient.

We’ll see if I get any reply.

Dr. Duncan,

I recently read a report from NewsChannel 5 (http://www.newschannel5.com/content/investigates/20550.asp?q=teacher) concerning Captain Parker and his lack of a teaching/coaching position next year at Wilson Central High School.

Your comments in the article seem misleading. You insist that “he was not fired,” but yet you stated, “Could he have said something to his superiors? ‘Look, I really need to get back there. If everything is equal, I need to get back there January 3rd because that’s when my class starts and I need to be with those kids for the full semester.” You made other comments to the report for NewsChannel 5 that lead me to believe you hold a grudge against Captain Parker for being a member of the reserves and deploying in support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. Am I correct in my belief? Also, how do you justify your disregard for guidance published by the National School Boards Association (http://www.nsba.org/site/docs/31400/31391.pdf) stating Captain Parker’s position is protected for one year after his return?

I have also read on a blog that you responded to an email stating the reporter did not listen to all the issues. Would you like to take some time to explain the issues you spoke about?

I write for a military blog named A Soldier’s Perspective (http://militarygear.com/asp), and I am certain the readers would also like to know the answers to the questions I have asked. Any response you provide will be published in full without editing. Thank you for your time, Dr. Duncan.

Cpl M
A Soldier’s Perspective

http://militarygear.com/asp