Friday's Internet Edition, 08:03 PM, July 03, 2009.

Debra Santer battled with faculty, parents and administrators and had repeated meetings with Kanawha Superintendent Ron Duerring, including one when she allegedly removed her hearing aids and threw them in his direction.

Her tenure in Kanawha County included a 10-day suspension for insubordination, which she appealed to the state supreme court.

After the court refused to hear the case, she twice sued her attorney.

Santer was hired last month to replace Lori Gibson, who gave up the Reedy principal’s position to take a job teaching kindergarten at Spencer Elementary.

Like Hamric, Santer will spend half her time teaching at the small school, which last year had an enrollment of 162 students.

Hamric taught physical education while she was principal. Roane Superintendent Steve Goffreda said at last month’s school board meeting, when Santer was hired, it had not been determined for certain what subject Santer would teach.

Efforts to each Santer for comment for this story were unsuccessful. Calls placed to a listing in Cross Lanes were not returned. No one answered calls placed to Reedy Elementary, where school is out of session for the summer.

Santer taught special education at Walton Elementary/Middle School last year, her first year in the Roane County school system.

She worked in Kanawha County from 1985 through 2004 teaching fifth grade, special education and Title I in addition to serving as an assistant principal and acting principal.

Santer began teaching in Memphis, Tenn., in 1979. After leaving Kanawha, she taught two years in Bedford, Va., followed by another two years Grant County, W.Va.

According to a 29-page ruling issued by a state employees grievance board administrative law judge in June 2003, Santer “yearns to be selected as a principal, but has so far been unsuccessful.”

That was part of the findings of fact issued by administrative law judge Janis Reynolds after Santer filed a grievance against the Kanawha Board of Education seeking a reversal of the suspension.

The ruling says in September 2002 Santer was suspended, with pay, for “inappropriate behavior, insubordination, and making false, misleading and accusatory statements” to her supervisor, Asst. Supt. Leonard Allen, Duerring and the board of education.

The findings also say Santer had difficulty accepting directions from Allen, resulting in harsh words being exchanged between the two.

After one confrontation with her principal and Allen at a staff development meeting, Santer returned to her school and sat on the floor crying to the school secretary, saying she had “‘lost it’” or “‘pushed it too far,’” the report said.

After a three-day pre-disciplinary hearing and attempts at mediation in March 2003, the Kanawha Board of Education adopted the recommendations of the hearing examiner and suspended Santer for 10 days without pay and ordered her to assist in development of an improvement plan when she returned.

Santer was an assistant principal at Flinn Elementary when she was suspended, after serving the previous year as acting principal at Roxalana Elementary, a school scheduled for closure.

The ruling said Santer developed problems with teachers and staff that led to the staff requesting a meeting with her supervisor. Parents also had complaints about her.

After meetings with Duerring, Allen and faculty, school officials had decided to transfer Santer to another school, before she convinced them to allow her to remain. She then “threatened the staff with some type of legal action” and was immediately transferred to Piedmont Elementary to assist the principal of that school.

She received verbal warnings about her “aggressive and rude interpersonal communication style” while continuing to apply for principal positions. After being passed over for one position, she began writing lengthy letters to Duerring, other administrators and school board members.

She continued to write letters complaining of such matters as perceived unprofessional conduct by administrators and the fact that she did not receive the principal of the year award. She also repeatedly visited Duerring’s office to complain about how she had been treated. Many of these meetings lasted an hour.

During one of these meetings, which included another assistant superintendent, she allegedly took out her hearing aids and tossed then onto the table, with one of them landing near Duerring. She received a verbal warning from him that year about rude and inappropriate behavior.

She applied for another principal’s position but arrived late for the interview. According to the ruling, Santer “has a history of being late.”

She first was refused an interview because she missed her appointment. After she “threw a fit and demanded an interview” one was granted, the ruling said. She was not selected for the job.

In upholding the 10-day suspension, Reynolds also allowed the improvement plan to stand, but said the written reprimand appeared “excessive” in light of the other action and ordered it removed from Santer’s file.

Santer appealed the ruling to circuit court, where she lost. The case made its way to the state supreme court, where, in November 2004 the court refused to hear her appeal on in a unanimous 5-0 vote.

Last year, Santer filed a suit against Charleston attorney Cynthia Evans, alleging she paid for $4,700 in legal services that were not rendered. She claimed Evans submitted false bills that constituted “mail fraud” and made false, defamatory statements.

Evans filed a motion asking the suit in Kanawha Magistrate Court be dismissed because it failed to state “a coherent cause of action.”

Evans noted Santer had filed the same action in 2002 but voluntarily withdrew it.

Santer’s court filings said she withdrew the first suit while awaiting the outcome of a complaint she filed against Evans with the State Bar Association’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

When that complaint was rejected, Santer returned to magistrate court five years later where her filing alleged, “now is the time to revisit Ms. Evans’s despicable and blatantly dishonest acts.”

That case was dismissed, a spokesman in the Kanawha Magistrate Court said.