Roberts v. Houston Independent School District

Verna Roberts (plaintiff) was a teacher with a long record of poor performance assessments and evaluations. The school’s assessment team at Robert’s school would periodically evaluate her by videotaping her teaching and then critiquing the videos with Roberts. The assessment team counseled Roberts to improve her performance or she would lose her job. Eventually, the assessment team recommended termination. The school district (defendant) notified Roberts of its intent to terminate her. Roberts requested a public hearing to contest the termination. Roberts was provided with the district’s witness list and a copy of its exhibits. Roberts was not provided with a copy of the edited videotapes that the district planned to use, but she had permission to view all the videotapes of her that were held in district offices. Roberts chose not to view the videotapes. At the hearing, the district provided evidence in support of Roberts’s termination, including a 30-minute compilation of videos demonstrating Roberts’s worst teaching performances. The board voted unanimously to terminate Roberts’s employment. Roberts sued the district in state court, alleging violations of her due-process rights. Roberts argued that she did not have notice of the contents of the edited videotapes and that the videos violated her right to privacy. The trial court found in favor of the district and upheld Roberts’s suspension. Roberts appealed to the state appellate court.