Teacher wins compensation

MADAWASKA – A hearing officer for the Workers’ Compensation Board has ruled that the Madawaska School Department must pay a former teacher who left work with post-traumatic stress syndrome two years’ full salary and 50 percent partial incapacity until she is able to return to work.

Deborah Caron, 49, a special-education teacher with the Madawaska School Department since 1998 was teaching at the Madawaska Middle-High School when she left work on Nov. 10, 2003, alleging PTSD.

Caron, a Fort Kent teacher who spent much of the past 25 years in special education previously taught in Fort Kent and Milo.

In February 2005, the Madawaska school board voted not to renew Caron’s contract, which expired June 30, 2005.

Workers’ Compensation Board hearing officer Thomas Pelletier ruled in favor of Caron’s petition for alleged mental injury caused by mental stress on Oct. 28. Appeals of the decision may be filed within 20 days.

“Our attorney does not recommend an appeal,” Carlton Dubois, interim superintendent of schools in Madawaska, said Monday. “We didn’t prove our case and we regret that.

“We accept the decision in the hope that Mrs. Caron will benefit from therapy and return to work at some point,” he said.

Dubois said the money involved is covered by Maine School Management Association, the carrier of the school’s workers’ compensation insurance policy.

According to Pelletier’s 10-page report, after two hearings held in February and April 2004, he concluded that Caron had no difficulty performing her job until fall 2003, a time when an emotionally disturbed and troubled 12-year-old came to her sixth-grade special-education class.

According to information in Pelletier’s decision, the youth, who wanted to be expelled so he could attend classes in another town where his father lived, disrupted the class, threatened students and teachers, assaulted students and teachers, committed theft from students and teachers, and verbally abused with obscene and threatening language teachers, staff and students.

Two other teachers had refused to have the student in their class, and a “one-on-one monitor” was added for the student. After one month, the monitor, who complained to authorities of being overwhelmed, was discharged by the school department.

Other educational technicians refused to take the position, and Caron’s mental health deteriorated, according to the report. Pelletier noted that Caron complained of not getting “adequate help and support” from Mary Guerrette, assistant principal and head of the special-education department, and Fran Chasse, principal at the school.

“Rather than obtaining help with Gary [a fictitious name for the student] from the administrative staff, Mrs. Caron was abruptly informed that because no on else in the school was willing to perform one-on-one, he would in effect become her responsibility,” Pelletier wrote.

“The stress caused by Gary’s behavior, Mrs. Caron’s perception of lack of administrative support … and finally having her personal responsibility for Gary increased by administrators proved too much for Mrs. Caron to handle,” Pelletier wrote.

On Nov. 10, 2003, Caron was taken out of work by her personal physician.

“I credit Mrs. Caron’s testimony that administration did not respond adequately to her requests for help, and that administrators instead imposed increased one-on-one monitoring responsibilities on Mrs. Caron,” Pelletier wrote. “In other words, Mrs. Caron’s account of events is accurate, the lack of support was not a misperception on her part and the school did not take concrete measures to deal with the situation.”

Last February, the Madawaska School Committee voted not to renew her contract to teach in Madawaska. On Monday, Dubois would not comment on whether Caron could be rehired in Madawaska.

Originally the school department said Caron’s contract was not renewed because she was unable to perform her duties as a teacher, and had failed to communicate with the school department since leaving the job on Nov. 10, 2003.

After communications from Norman Trask, Caron’s attorney, the school committee retracted the words that declared her unresponsive.

Dr. Danny R. P. Michaud, superintendent in Madawaska at the time, said Caron was not fired but that her contract was not renewed. He said “the offensive words” were removed from the minutes of the meeting.