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By Josh Verges | jverges@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: November 28, 2022 at 11:11 a.m. | UPDATED: November 28, 2022 at 9:07 p.m.
Minnesota’s teacher licensing board wrongly denied a substitute teaching license to the former police officer who killed Philando Castile, according to a panel of Minnesota Court of Appeals judges who on Monday sent the case back to the board for reconsideration.
The judges found the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board inappropriately concluded that Jeronimo Yanez’s actions as a police officer amount to “immoral character or conduct” under a state statute that lays out the grounds for teacher license revocations and suspensions.
In sending the case back to the board, the judges said the board may consider that conduct clause only as it relates to Yanez’s “fitness to teach.” And they cautioned the board not to stray into “condemn(ing) lawful police practices,” such as stopping drivers for minor violations.
“The board’s decision must focus exclusively on Yanez’s conduct and his fitness to be a teacher, not fitness to be a police officer,” the panel wrote.
Jeronimo Yanez, left, at the Ramsey County courthouse in St. Paul on Tuesday, May 30, 2017. (Courtesy of KARE 11)
Yanez shot and killed Castile in St. Anthony in 2016 after pulling him over for an inoperable brake light. Yanez said Castile, who was Black, looked like a robbery suspect.
During their brief interaction, Castile told the officer he had a gun on him, and Yanez warned him not to reach for it. Yanez fired his gun several times, killing Castile and nearly hitting Castile’s girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter.
A jury in 2017 found Yanez not guilty of manslaughter, but he left law enforcement after the trial and gave up his peace officer’s license.
The board’s disciplinary committee wrote several months later that it intended to deny his application “because it believes that (Yanez’s) involvement in the shooting and death of Philando Castile is misconduct which is a ground for the Board to refuse to issue a teaching license.”
Yanez appealed, and an administrative law judge held a contested case hearing in July 2021. Joe Gothard, superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools, where Castile was working in food service when he was killed, served as an expert witness.
“No school-aged child should have a licensed educator who took the life of a Black man in the way (Yanez) did when he killed Mr. Castile,” Gothard testified.
St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Joe Gothard speaks at a board meeting, April 9, 2019. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Yanez’s school principal, who was not named in the appellate court decision, also testified. He said Yanez had an excellent performance rating for the school year — rare for new teachers — and had strengthened the school’s Spanish program.
The administrative law judge ultimately recommended the licensing board deny Yanez’s application, writing that Yanez should not have killed Castile and that his “prejudgments of Mr. Castile are indicative of racial bias, microaggressions, and negativity bias that are detrimental to students, especially students of color.”
The judge also found that Yanez’s “pretextual stop, racial profiling, and killing of Mr. Castile constitute immoral conduct (that was) morally wrong, and deeply hurtful and offensive to the community.”
The licensing board adopted the administrative law judge’s recommendation last December, denying Yanez’s application for “immoral conduct.” Yanez then appealed to the Court of Appeals, which on Monday sent the case back to the licensing board for reconsideration.
Yanez said during the application process that “second chances are important in education and life” and that “working as a substitute teacher certainly would be” for him, according to the appeals panel’s ruling.
His attorney, Robert Fowler, said during oral arguments that the outcome of the case will affect not only Yanez but other former police officers looking to become licensed in a variety of regulated fields.
Fowler said in a statement Monday that “it was obvious the Licensing Board’s decision was wrong. That’s why my client appealed and he is pleased with the Court’s decision. However, my client’s priority now is moving on to the next chapter in his life in peace and privacy.” He declined to answer questions about Yanez.
A spokeswoman for the licensing board said that by law, the board can’t discuss the matter.
Yanez has been working for a Catholic school for about two years, according to Tom Halden, spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Halden said Yanez passed a criminal background check, completed safe environment training and signed a code of conduct. The state does not require private school teachers to be licensed.
It appears possible that if his application is approved, he could even work in St. Paul Public Schools without advance notice to the district.
During oral arguments, assistant attorney general David Cullen said that St. Paul, like several other metro districts, hires its substitute teachers through the temp agency Teachers On Call, and “there typically is not advance notice of who that substitute teacher will be.”
“So, couldn’t they tell Teachers On Call, ‘We do not want Mr. Yanez in our schools because it would be terribly upsetting to our students?’” Appeals Court Judge Diane Bratvold asked.
“I think you’re wrong about that, Your Honor,” Cullen said. “Substitute teachers receive calls, they go in, they check in at the office and they are directed to the classroom they are subbing in for, and there typically is not advance notice of who that is going to be.”
“As Dr. Gothard testified and opined, he wouldn’t be in a position to create a safety plan for students and staff,” Cullen said.
The Pioneer Press could not confirm whether that was the case or not.
St. Paul Public Schools spokeswoman Erica Wacker didn’t have an answer either, and Gothard declined to comment Monday.
There is some precedent, however, for the St. Paul district refusing a substitute teacher. In 2016, Candice Egan spoke with the Pioneer Press about an assault by a 12-year-old student. Days later, she said a Teachers On Call manager called her to say the St. Paul district no longer wanted her to work for them.
A district spokesman told the Pioneer Press at the time that it was “a practice of SPPS to not ask substitutes back to work during an ongoing police or district investigation.” Egan sued, claiming the district blacklisted her for talking to reporters, and later settled for $20,000.
A bench in honor of Philando Castile near James J. Hill Elementary School in St. Paul becomes something of a winter sculpture after a snowfall on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. (Julio Ojeda-Zapata / Pioneer Press)
Appeals court: Officer who killed Philando Castile was wrongly denied license to teach
Jeronimo Yanez applied for a teaching license while teaching Spanish at a parochial school.
www.twincities.com
Appeals court: Officer who killed Philando Castile was wrongly denied license to teach
By Josh Verges | jverges@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: November 28, 2022 at 11:11 a.m. | UPDATED: November 28, 2022 at 9:07 p.m.
Minnesota’s teacher licensing board wrongly denied a substitute teaching license to the former police officer who killed Philando Castile, according to a panel of Minnesota Court of Appeals judges who on Monday sent the case back to the board for reconsideration.
The judges found the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board inappropriately concluded that Jeronimo Yanez’s actions as a police officer amount to “immoral character or conduct” under a state statute that lays out the grounds for teacher license revocations and suspensions.
In sending the case back to the board, the judges said the board may consider that conduct clause only as it relates to Yanez’s “fitness to teach.” And they cautioned the board not to stray into “condemn(ing) lawful police practices,” such as stopping drivers for minor violations.
“The board’s decision must focus exclusively on Yanez’s conduct and his fitness to be a teacher, not fitness to be a police officer,” the panel wrote.
Yanez shot and killed Castile in St. Anthony in 2016 after pulling him over for an inoperable brake light. Yanez said Castile, who was Black, looked like a robbery suspect.
During their brief interaction, Castile told the officer he had a gun on him, and Yanez warned him not to reach for it. Yanez fired his gun several times, killing Castile and nearly hitting Castile’s girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter.
A jury in 2017 found Yanez not guilty of manslaughter, but he left law enforcement after the trial and gave up his peace officer’s license.
Teaching Spanish
According to the appellate court’s order, Yanez was teaching Spanish part-time at an unnamed Catholic school in February 2020 when he applied for a three-year, short-call substitute teaching license. He acknowledged on his application to the board that he had been acquitted of a violent crime.The board’s disciplinary committee wrote several months later that it intended to deny his application “because it believes that (Yanez’s) involvement in the shooting and death of Philando Castile is misconduct which is a ground for the Board to refuse to issue a teaching license.”
Yanez appealed, and an administrative law judge held a contested case hearing in July 2021. Joe Gothard, superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools, where Castile was working in food service when he was killed, served as an expert witness.
“No school-aged child should have a licensed educator who took the life of a Black man in the way (Yanez) did when he killed Mr. Castile,” Gothard testified.
Yanez’s school principal, who was not named in the appellate court decision, also testified. He said Yanez had an excellent performance rating for the school year — rare for new teachers — and had strengthened the school’s Spanish program.
The administrative law judge ultimately recommended the licensing board deny Yanez’s application, writing that Yanez should not have killed Castile and that his “prejudgments of Mr. Castile are indicative of racial bias, microaggressions, and negativity bias that are detrimental to students, especially students of color.”
The judge also found that Yanez’s “pretextual stop, racial profiling, and killing of Mr. Castile constitute immoral conduct (that was) morally wrong, and deeply hurtful and offensive to the community.”
The licensing board adopted the administrative law judge’s recommendation last December, denying Yanez’s application for “immoral conduct.” Yanez then appealed to the Court of Appeals, which on Monday sent the case back to the licensing board for reconsideration.
Yanez said during the application process that “second chances are important in education and life” and that “working as a substitute teacher certainly would be” for him, according to the appeals panel’s ruling.
His attorney, Robert Fowler, said during oral arguments that the outcome of the case will affect not only Yanez but other former police officers looking to become licensed in a variety of regulated fields.
Fowler said in a statement Monday that “it was obvious the Licensing Board’s decision was wrong. That’s why my client appealed and he is pleased with the Court’s decision. However, my client’s priority now is moving on to the next chapter in his life in peace and privacy.” He declined to answer questions about Yanez.
A spokeswoman for the licensing board said that by law, the board can’t discuss the matter.
Yanez has been working for a Catholic school for about two years, according to Tom Halden, spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Halden said Yanez passed a criminal background check, completed safe environment training and signed a code of conduct. The state does not require private school teachers to be licensed.
Could Yanez work for St. Paul?
The license Yanez applied for would have qualified him to teach in a public school for up to 15 consecutive days in a given assignment.It appears possible that if his application is approved, he could even work in St. Paul Public Schools without advance notice to the district.
During oral arguments, assistant attorney general David Cullen said that St. Paul, like several other metro districts, hires its substitute teachers through the temp agency Teachers On Call, and “there typically is not advance notice of who that substitute teacher will be.”
“So, couldn’t they tell Teachers On Call, ‘We do not want Mr. Yanez in our schools because it would be terribly upsetting to our students?’” Appeals Court Judge Diane Bratvold asked.
“I think you’re wrong about that, Your Honor,” Cullen said. “Substitute teachers receive calls, they go in, they check in at the office and they are directed to the classroom they are subbing in for, and there typically is not advance notice of who that is going to be.”
“As Dr. Gothard testified and opined, he wouldn’t be in a position to create a safety plan for students and staff,” Cullen said.
The Pioneer Press could not confirm whether that was the case or not.
Prohibiting subs
Asked whether a school district could prohibit a particular sub from working in their schools, Teachers On Call spokeswoman Danielle Nixon said she was “unable to answer your question at this time.”St. Paul Public Schools spokeswoman Erica Wacker didn’t have an answer either, and Gothard declined to comment Monday.
There is some precedent, however, for the St. Paul district refusing a substitute teacher. In 2016, Candice Egan spoke with the Pioneer Press about an assault by a 12-year-old student. Days later, she said a Teachers On Call manager called her to say the St. Paul district no longer wanted her to work for them.
A district spokesman told the Pioneer Press at the time that it was “a practice of SPPS to not ask substitutes back to work during an ongoing police or district investigation.” Egan sued, claiming the district blacklisted her for talking to reporters, and later settled for $20,000.
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