Judge: Yuba special ed teacher must exhaust collective bargaining option first

A teacher challenging the Yuba County Office of Education over her suspension failed to exhaust administrative remedies and has to follow collective bargaining procedures before seeking court intervention, a judge ruled.

Yuba County Superior Court Judge R. Michael Smith, in his decision filed Monday, agreed with the attorney for the Office of Education that teacher Sally McCurry has to first pursue a dispute resolution provided for in collective bargaining.

McCurry is challenging her 10-day suspension after the education office contended she allowed her son to access a confidential video of a female student ripping posters off a classroom wall. McCurry teaches special education at the Agnes Weber Meade School in Marysville, a two-room facility at Kynoch Elementary for primary and upper elementary students between ages 8 and 11 with severe language disorders.

She said at a November hearing that her son transferred by email the video from an iPad to her iPhone because she didn't know how to perform the video transfer, according to the county office.

McCurry's attorney, in a filing in Yuba County Superior Court, contended the Office of Education planned a sham hearing.

Attorney Ted Lindstrom said she was entitled to a state Administrative Procedures Act hearing and that a review of the suspension by County Superintendent Scotia Holmes Sanchez was inadequate.