Judge orders former Sullivan County teacher to be reinstated

A Sullivan County Schools teacher who was dismissed in 2021 must be reinstated following a ruling by a chancery court judge, a decision the school board could decide to appeal. Matthew Hawn was fired from his teaching job at Sullivan Central High School in 2021 after a parent complained about materials used in his contemporary issues class. The complaint centered around Hawn’s use of an article pertaining to white privilege and a spoken word poem video called “White Privilege” that included profanity. The school board voted to fire Hawn in June 2021, and that decision was upheld later in the year. Hawn appealed the case to Sullivan County Chancery Court in January 2022. Chancellor Katherine Priester found Hawn was not insubordinate nor unprofessional in his conduct and reversed the decision to dismiss Hawn and ordered that he be reinstated and to be paid his full salary without offset for the time he was suspended and dismissed. Priester said said that the conclusion by director of schools David Cox to fire Hawn was not consistent with the testimony and exhibits that were presented in the case.