C. J. Huff and the Assassination of a Teacher's Character

On May 23, 2013, Joplin Schools Superintendent, who became a national hero after the Joplin Tornado when he famously claimed that school would start on time despite the destruction of 10 buildings, showed a different side of his character. During a termination hearing for tenured teacher Randy Turner, Huff and members of his administration insinuated that Turner could not be trusted around children,..though he was not charged with anything of that nature. The charges mostly revolved around a book Turner wrote, No Child Left Alive, which described a year in a dysfunctional public high school, where the superintendent had an uncanny resemblance to Huff. The Board of Education backed Huff and fired Turner, but the final decision handed down by the board said there was no evidence that Turner had ever done anything wrong with students, and in fact, no students or parents ever made any such claim. Despite that declaration by the board, the publicity surrounding Turner's hearing and the coverage of the insinuations made by Huff and his administrators virtually guaranteed the end to Randy Turner's teaching career. This book is the transcript of that hearing, which started with accusations about a book Turner had written, and concluded with the hero of the Joplin Tornado in tears talking about how he could not sleep at night if Turner remained in the classroom, and how he would never let Turner teach his teenage daughter.