At times, Laurie Cook's dismissal hearing last week sounded more like a television tabloid talk show than a personnel hearing, with people being asked to tell all about the relationship between the high school science teacher and the strapping young football player.
It could have been carried out behind closed doors; state law allows school personnel hearings to be private.
But the Northeast High School teacher exercised her right under the same law to have a public hearing on four charges of misconduct.
"If you had a statement you wanted to make to the world, you could go on 'Geraldo!' or have a public hearing," said Terrence M. Nolan, the lawyer for Northeast teacher Charles A. Yocum, who is accused of sexual impropriety with a student.
Ms. Cook's hearing began Dec. 2 and is scheduled to conclude Jan. 18. More than 100 people are on witness lists.
The open hearing allows the defense to expose the "shoddy investigation" that underlies the charges and for Ms. Cook to publicly respond to them, said M. Cristina Gutierrez, one of her lawyers.
"The investigation [by school officials] focused on such outrageous things," she said.
The public hearing strategy was used last summer in Fairfax, Va., when a 46-year-old gym teacher was accused of fondling little girls over two decades.
The teacher, Craig Gordon, felt he had nothing to lose and everything to gain, said his lawyer, Steven Stone.
"Craig Gordon felt that he could not get a fair hearing behind closed doors. He felt that way because of all the actions which had occurred behind closed doors leading up to recommendation that he be terminated," Mr. Stone said.
"For six months, he answered all questions that were asked of him behind closed doors and trusted in the system, and every time he did that a door was slammed in his face; he was told 'we don't believe you.' [It] led him to conclude he could not and would not get a fair hearing behind closed doors," Mr. Stone said.
Fairfax County school officials fired the teacher at the conclusion of the hearings in July, and Mr. Stone said last week that he was preparing to sue the school system.
A closed hearing is stacked against the accused, said Ms. Gutierrez, a high-profile Baltimore criminal lawyer. She said she wanted to prevent the school board from saying that only board members, and not outsiders, had heard the whole story. The accusations are riddled with holes, she claims, and the public should hear that, too.
"We wanted to bring some sunshine into this," Ms. Gutierrez said.
Ms. Cook's other lawyer, Susan W. Russell, the Maryland State Teachers Association's associate general counsel, agreed.
She noted that her client has no children in school who might be embarrassed by the hearing and that much of the testimony was aired at Ms. Cook's criminal trial last December, which ended in acquittal. Ms. Cook also wanted the hearing to be public so that her brother and friends could attend.
Ms. Cook is defending herself against four misconduct charges filed by school system administrators: engaging in a sexual relationship with a student; having inappropriate contact with students and families; writing passes for a female student so that she could meet with Ronald W. Price, the teacher who was convicted of three counts of child sexual abuse, and writing passes for a male student so that he could be with her; and unprofessional conduct.
Superintendent Carol S. Parham recommended July 13 that Ms. Cook be fired.
Mr. Stone said that being publicly accused of crimes against children is horrible and that anyone who makes such allegations should be prepared to face the person accused in public.
That reasoning doesn't impress local and national advocates for children.
'A public spectacle'
"I think Laurie Cook is entitled to a hearing, but not a public hearing. To make a public spectacle of it is meant to intimidate the witnesses, the children," said Carolyn Roeding, a past president of the Anne Arundel County Council of PTAs.
Sherry Bithell, author of the book "Educator Sexual Abuse," about teachers who sexually abuse students, said she thinks forcing students to testify a second time is bad enough, without making them do it in public.
"Certainly, an open hearing is an act of intimidation," Ms. Bithell said. "It's like putting you on public display, as back in the days of the Puritans, when people were put in head braces and made to stand in the public square all day. I thought we'd gotten away from that."
She advocated closing such hearings if hearings are held at all.
"I understand wanting to go through and make sure you've covered all your bases, but why put a victim through this $H humiliation a second time?" she said. A teacher accused of child sexual abuse is "put on notice," she said. "You've prevented child abuse already."
In the Fairfax County hearings, grade school children testified not only before crowds of 400 people, including the teacher's supporters, but also before TV cameras, including those from the CBS show "48 Hours."
William M. Ferris, the hearing examiner for Ms. Cook's case, barred cameras. Television trucks are in the fire lane outside the school system's Annapolis headquarters.
Witnesses are getting help from the victim-witness assistance program of the Anne Arundel state's attorney's office, said Sandra L. Foy, an assistant prosecutor who is the school system's co-counsel for the Cook hearings.
Rita Lowman, president of the Anne Arundel County Council of PTAs, said she has "no problem" with the public hearings. Needlework in hand, she has sat through most of the testimony out of a sense of responsibility.
'A right to know'
"Parents have a right to know what possibly did happen or didn't happen," she said.
Nevertheless, she said, she felt that the youths testifying were under stress -- particularly during pointed cross-examination -- that she imagined would be hard for an adult to withstand.
"I feel sorry for them having to go through that type of harassment," she said.
Mr. Stone, like other lawyers defending teachers in such cases, thinks that once the police and the legal system do not find enough evidence to support child sexual abuse allegations, a school board should drop its accusations.
He said school systems are ill equipped to conduct investigations and that the standard of proof in hearings is dangerously relaxed.
And, Ms. Russell notes, unlike in a court case, neither side can subpoena witnesses.
"If you think it is hard to get witnesses the first time around, you should try it the second time around," Ms. Russell said.