From the teacher defamation files: Poway school district settles psychologist's defamation complaint

It seems that school districts have problems with psychologists who evaluate children who need special education. Often districts want to save money by evading state laws. In the B.J. Freeman case, Stutz law firm conducted a lawsuit on behalf of Vista Unified School District against a psychologist who insisted that a child qualified for special education. The psychologist did not back down, and Dan Shinoff was forced to drop the suit.

I suspect this case concerns the opposite situation: the psychologist did exactly as the school district wished. I suspect that he intentionally wrote evaluations in which children who qualified for special education were found not to need it. This, of course, made the teachers angry. But since he had done what the district asked, the district paid him off. Here's the story of an administrator, Mary Anne Weegar, who insisted that her school district obey the law. All three school districts involved in the above cases have Daniel Shinoff as their lawyer.

Poway school district settles psychologist's defamation complaint
By Eleanor Yang
SDUT
June 20, 2001

The Poway Unified School District has agreed to pay $50,000 to a school psychologist who filed complaints against the district alleging slander, defamation, retaliation and violations of state laws.

Robert Gregory Nunn, who has worked for the district since 1999, will resign June 30 as part of the settlement agreement. Nunn worked full time at mt. Carmel High School and made special education assessments at several elementary schools.

The district denied a Union-Tribune request for records pertaining to Nunn's complaints, stating they were made orally and that there were no documents to release...