Former Plainfield teacher facing sexual misconduct charges won't get job back

The New Jersey Department of Education has ruled in favor of the Plainfield Public School District in firing a music teacher facing criminal charges he inappropriately touched two of his elementary school students.

Donnie Harrell, 57, of Bridgewater, had appealed his termination from the school district in January 2019, arguing that his tenure rights had been violated.

But Administrative Law Judge Susana Guerrero ruled earlier this fall hat Harrell had never received tenure in Plainfield and the state Department of Education agreed.

Harrell started working full-time for the school district as a music teacher at Clinton Elementary School in April 2014.

But he was reassigned to the school district's Central Office in March 2016 pending an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct toward a student.

When he was reassigned to the Central Office, court papers say, he continued to get paid, but did not teach "and did not do any work for the District, with the exception of making photocopies once or twice."

On June 1, 2017, the state Department of Children and Families' Institutional Abuse Investigation Unit said it could not "conclusively determine" if a sexual incident had occurred between Harrell and the student. A month later, the Union County Prosecutor's Office determined there was "insufficient evidence" to file charges against Harrell.

Harrell then returned to teaching at the start of the 2017-18 school year but was again reassigned to the Central Office on March 28, 2018, following a second complaint of sexual misconduct toward another student in 2016. He was then placed on administrative leave.

In December 2018 he was charged by the Union County Prosecutor's Office with two counts of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child. The charges stem from alleged incidents that took place during after-school tutoring sessions at Clinton Elementary School, according to the prosecutor's office.

Harrell was fired in January 2019.

In December 2019, a grand jury added a charge of sexual assault against Harrell. Those charges are still pending.

A decade before he joined the Plainfield School District, Harrell had been acquitted on charges of exposing himself to children at an Asbury Park elementary school.

In the appeal of his termination, Harrell argued that he had acquired tenure on April 16, 2018, four years after being hired full-time by the district by "working continuously" and paid as a full-time teacher, though he had been reassigned to the Central District Office.

But Guerrero disagreed.

Under state law, New Jersey increased the length of time in 2012 to acquire tenure from three to four years and required school districts to measure a teacher's effectiveness in that time. To earn tenure, a teacher must receive a rating of "effective" or "highly effective."

Harrell also contended he should be given tenure because he had not been evaluated.

While Harrell was hired by the district as a teacher and may have been an employee of the district for over four years, "the passage of time alone does not guarantee tenure," Guerrero wrote in her decision.

Guerrero found that in the four years Harrell was employed in the district, he spent a "significant portion" not in the classroom, but in the Central Office.

The evaluation of his teaching required for tenure "cannot be accomplished when the teacher is not teaching," Guerrero wrote.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ rules Plainfield can fire teacher facing sex misconduct charges