Unfortunately, my principal was the one who helped create and continue the hostile work environment. Another teacher, who is a close friend with the principal went to him and lodged a complaint against me saying that I made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature in the presence of students. This teacher (a male, approx 15 years senior to me) had asked me to accompany him for drinks after work and made comments like "I'd like to get to know you better, outside of work" to which I replied that I didn't drink, but thank you anyway. I did not report these comments, although I obviously wish I had. He had told me he was going through a divorce, and I honestly considered him a harmless (and kind of sad) old man.

My principal placed a letter in my personnel file as a warning that he had a complaint against me, now instead of the one teacher, he was claiming to have other staff members who overheard my inappropriate comments as well as students. I asked him to tell me who the staff members and students were. He would not tell me who the students were or allow me to have a face to face meeting with the staff members who he claims overheard my comments. My principal said that he would only tell me the names of the staff if I agreed not to confront them. He named 4 staff members, two of whom I shared a class period twice during the day and the other two of whom were never in the same room with me while dealing with students. He said he would not name the students under any circumstances. Of the two teachers I had actually worked with, I continued to work with one. I worked with him for nearly 30% of my time interacting with students. I did ask him if he had made such claims to the principal, or if he'd complained about me making any inappropriate comments. Not only did he NOT make any allegations against me, he maintains that the principal never even asked him about my conduct around students.

The letter that was placed in my file says, "any repeat of these kinds of actions may result in further action." I wrote a response denying the charges and asked that be placed in my personnel file along with the letter from my principal. When I received the letter, I went to my principal to clarify exactly what it meant because the letter directly states that if there are further problems of "this nature" that there further action might be taken. I assumed this meant I would be terminated. I asked my principal specifically if that part of the letter meant I would be renewed for the following school year and he answered yes, as long as there are not any further problems. He told me several times that he wanted to "put this incident behind us."

My working environment became more hostile as my original accuser continued to do things were harassing to me. I was a cheerleader coach during my time at this school and my original accuser actually pulled one of my cheerleaders from her class to ask if I'd been talking about him in her presence. I reported this verbally to my principal and asked him to put an end to the continued harassment. He did not follow up with me as to what action he took. Then some weeks later, the SAME TEACHER told one of his students that I had been fired for sexual harassment. I reported this in writing to my principal and asked him to take care of the problem and then follow through with me as to what action was taken. Approximately two weeks later, I was called into the principal's office, presumably to discuss the escalating harassment I was experiencing and to follow through with me as to what action had been taken. Instead, he told me that he didn't want me back the next year. He told me that since I didn't have tenure, if he didn't want me there, that was the way it would go. He told me that it would go better if I resigned because non-renewal looked bad for a teacher, but a resignation would lead to a "decent reference" from him.

This has been a personal attack on my character. My only error in this situation is confusing fighting for a job with fighting for my character. I was dealing with personal family crisis of my mother's stroke that occurred during all of this. I went along and resigned because I no longer wanted to be there, the principal did not want me there, and he promised me a "decent reference." I resigned and my resignation was accepted by the school board.

Since that time, he has reported to at least two potential employers as well as to the department of labor that I was fired for inappropriate sexual comments to children. I am at the end of my rope because for reasons I will never understand, this man seems to be making it his mission to destroy my career. I have worked with children from birth through post-secondary since 1986 with never a complaint or concern about my conduct from anyone. I don't know what to do next.

I am to have an appeal hearing with DOL, but feel defenseless because the school system has access to attorneys and advice, and I haven't had much advise prior to now. I am a member of the Georgia Association of Educators. I tried at least 3 separate times to contact their legal department for some advise but was told each time that I wasn't a member according to their records. I faxed them copies of my pay stub (numerous times) that shows my dues being withheld from my check and also sent them copies of the membership number they had given me; they have never helped me.