
Jemal Murph, right, talks with attorney Jon Goodman during his termination hearing before the Portland school board at Casco Bay High School on Tuesday night. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald
The Portland school board delayed a vote on whether to fire a middle school athletic director after an eight-hour public hearing that stretched into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The district is arguing for Jemal Murph, the athletic director at Lincoln Middle School, to be fired after he hit a student with a closed fist at a soccer match in October. Murph’s attorney says he acted in self-defense after being assaulted by a group of students from another school.
The board heard testimony and played several videos of the incident in front of a packed room at Casco Bay High School before voting to delay around 1 a.m. Wednesday. They will take up deliberations again on Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a public vote. Board members cannot take any more evidence or public comment, or discuss the issue among themselves, in the meantime.
Warning: The following video contains explicit language.
District staff have the option to request a public termination hearing, which Murph did in this case.
Hundreds of people, including members of the teachers union, students and families attended the hearing, so many that the school board needed to supply more chairs and many people remained standing during the proceeding. Many audibly reacted to the testimony in support of Murph, prompting the board at times to ask the audience to remain quiet.
One of those attendees was Maza Mohamed, a parent of an eighth grade student who has been taught by Murph since she was in kindergarten and he worked at Longfellow Elementary School.
Before the hearing, she said Murph had always looked out for her daughter in school, and that while upset about the proposed termination, she was encouraged by the strong public turnout in his support.
“This is not fair, this is not right,” Mohamed said.

The school board had to supply more chairs to accommodate the crowd. Still, many people remained standing. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald
REVIEWING THE VIDEOS
As the hearing got underway, Murph sat on one side of a podium with his attorney, Jon Goodman, and Portland Education Association President Kerrie Dowdy and education technician union President Jen Cooper. On the other side sat Superintendent Ryan Scallon and school district attorney Melissa Hewey. The board held a lengthy executive session to talk with legal counsel before public testimony began.
The attorneys and the board examined four administrative witnesses called by the district: Lincoln Middle School Principal Aris Ayala, Assistant Superintendent Abdullahi Ahmed, Executive Director for Human Resources Jennifer Slabbinck and Scallon. All four recommended Murph be fired and said he should have reacted differently to deescalate the situation.
“I think it’s very clear from the series of videos that what we see here is a situation that we can’t condone or allow to happen in public schools,” Scallon said.
Ayala said that Murph called them from the soccer game at Dougherty Field and said that a group of students had surrounded him, were threatening him and that he hit one out of self-defense.
At various times throughout the hearing, the attorneys played three student-recorded videos of the incident. In the first, Murph talks to a group of students and asks them to leave the field. In the second, Murph says, “You guys wanna do this?” to a group of students around him, before one student lunges toward him and Murph knocks the student to the ground with a closed-fist. In the third video, taken during the aftermath, Murph says to the students: “Touch me again, and I will knock you out.”
Goodman argued that one student lunged at Murph with two fists raised and that Murph blocked the first with an open hand, then defended himself from being assaulted.
As he questioned several administrators, he asked them to say whether they observed the student coming at Murph with his hands raised. He slowed and paused the video at certain times and asked them to look at still photos taken from the video.
“A guy’s job is on the line, isn’t it important to get it right?” Goodman asked.

Jemal Murph greets students during a break in the Portland school board’s public firing hearing at Casco Bay High School on Tuesday night. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald
Goodman also argued that the district’s incident report mischaracterized the order of events and that Murph asked the students to leave several times in different ways before it became physical. He said Murph used force to defend rather than discipline and said terminating him would send a message that teachers can never defend themselves.
He said police did not charge Murph with any crime and that officers asked him if he wanted to pursue charges, which he did not.
When Murph testified near the end of the hearing, he said the videos have a narrow frame that don’t show the size of the group, which included about 15 students.
He said the students had previously harassed coaches and rifled through other students’ backpacks, and that a different school’s athletic director told him those students weren’t supposed to be there. Administrators said that the group was not Lincoln students and were not supposed to be at the soccer field that day because of previous bad behavior at sporting events.
Murph said the student jumped up and chest bumped him in the time before the second video begins. In response to a question about why he eventually hit back, Murph said he feared for his safety.
“For me, I was afraid of what was going to happen. I had to stop them from coming at me,” Murph said.
In closing arguments, which occurred just after midnight, Hewey, the school district’s attorney, said Murph should have asked other adults for support and made more of an effort to deescalate.
“He baited those students, and when they took the bait, he punched one with a closed fist,” Hewey said.
Goodman told the board that Murph would take the issue to arbitration if it rules against him.
DIFFICULT SITUATION
Portland’s hearing comes just a day after an Oakland wrestling coach was fired for allegedly punching a student in the face during a wrestling practice.
Some of those who spoke Tuesday night also referenced a separate incident last spring where Murph was accused of pushing a student.
Ayala, the middle school principal, said Murph had argued with a student during lunch and later got up and pushed them out of the lunch room with his hands. Murph was not disciplined for that encounter.

Jemal Murph gives a hug to Maza Mohamed during a Portland school board’s public firing hearing at Casco Bay High School on Tuesday night. Mohamed said that Murph has been a teacher for her now eighth-grade daughter since kindergarten. “He is just like a father”, she said. Derek Davis/Portland Press Heral
Ayala said that Lincoln Middle School staff and students had severe trust issues with leadership two and a half years ago and that more than a quarter of staff has left the school.
Ayala described Murph as a key confidant at the school, but said he nearly left to take another job.
“This whole situation has been extremely difficult for me,” Ayala said, though ultimately agreed that Murph crossed a line and recommended he be fired.
Goodman also called two co-workers of Murph’s from Lincoln, who described positive examples of when Murph handled conflict well. Lincoln school counselor Margaret Bessey talked about one where a student called Murph a racial epithet, and he responded thoughtfully.
“He saw her as a human who messed up, and I was really impressed by that,” she said.
Goodman asked Bessey what message Murph’s firing would send to staff.
“If he gets terminated for that, I worry … that the message will be kids can do whatever they want, and we can’t do anything,” she testified.
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