By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – It’s no secret we live in a lawsuit-happy culture, where even the smallest offense has the potential of producing a huge payday for the “victim.” Anyone who’s ever seen a television ad for a personal injury lawyer understands this.

With the threat of a lawsuit lurking around every corner, it’s understandable that public school officials have sought to protect themselves by “lawyering up.”

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But it’s not just local cranks and jackpot-seeking plaintiffs that school officials have to be on guard against. Ohio’s Dayton Daily News reports that a large portion of a typical school’s legal expenses are spent during contract negotiations with local teachers unions, or when a district attempts to fire some wayward teacher.

For example, the paper reports that “more than half of Tecumseh Local Schools’ $103,000 in legal services expenses in fiscal year 2012 came from one case of employee termination and the 2011 negotiations with the Tecumseh Education Association.”

Twenty-eight thousand of that was spent on legal fees to fire a single school employee, which is considered to be on the low end of the amount usually required to fire a unionized school employee. The Daily News reports that one Ohio school district has spent in excess of $700,000 to fire a science teacher for “teaching creationism and religious doctrine” in class. The case began in 2008 and is still going strong.

In both examples, school officials would much rather spend their money on hiring more teachers (or keeping those they have) or adding student programs. But that has become impossible, due to the bulletproof job protection known as teacher tenure.

The Dayton Daily News reports that over the last five years, 12 school districts in two Ohio counties “have spent a combined $3.1 million on legal services, including lawyer bills, costs for hearing officers and liability insurance counsel.”

School districts are turning to attorneys to help keep their powerful teacher unions in check. While legal costs aren’t the main reason so many school districts are running out of money, they’re certainly playing a part.