
Jemal Murph talks with his attorney Jon Goodman during the Portland school board’s public termination hearing at Casco Bay High School on Tuesday night. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald
Jemal Murph, the Lincoln Middle School athletic director who was facing termination by Portland Public Schools, will not be fired after reaching a private agreement with the district.
The school district recommended firing Murph over an October incident, captured on video, in which Murph hit a student from a different school during a soccer game in October. He was asking a group of students, at least one of whom was not supposed to be at the field, to disperse. When they refused, things escalated and Murph struck a student with a closed fist.
Murph and his attorney have argued he acted in self-defense when surrounded by as many as 15 students, one of whom punched him first. The district says he should have tried to deescalate the situation or call the police.
District administrators recommended termination following an investigation, and Murph requested a public hearing, which the school board held Tuesday night in a trial-style meeting that last almost eight hours. Hundreds of union members, students and parents packed Casco Bay High School for the hearing. The standing-room only crowd often reacted audibly in support of Murph during witness examination.
The district’s attorney called four administrators as witnesses, all of whom recommended termination. Murph’s attorney questioned two of his co-workers at Lincoln, and they spoke in support of his character, quality as an educator and handling of conflict. Murph himself took the stand around midnight, and said he did what he had to do to defend himself.
The meeting stretched into Wednesday morning, when the board decided to delay its decision until Friday evening. But the district canceled that vote at 3 p.m. Friday in a written statement.
“We have been able to come to an agreement with Mr. Murph and his Union that at once recognizes the seriousness of the situation and also Mr. Murph’s past contribution to (Portland Public Schools), and therefore we will not be going forward with the recommendation that he be dismissed,” the statement reads.
The district said it cannot comment on the terms of that agreement because it’s a confidential personnel matter, but said that the district, “will support Mr. Murph to have a successful return next year.”
Murph’s attorney, Jon Goodman, also declined to discuss the details of the deal and shared a statement on behalf of Murph and the Portland Education Association, the district’s teacher union.
“Mr. Murph and the Union appreciate that we have been able to resolve this and look forward to working together going forward,” it reads.
‘He did the right thing’
Jack Brogan had Murph as a teacher when he was a middle schooler at Lincoln. Now a junior at Freeport High School, Brogan said he sent countless emails to administrators and school board members this week strongly urging them not to fire Murph.
“He’s one of the last people in the school district that is willing to hold students accountable, really encourage growth and discipline when there really isn’t any in the school district,” Brogan said. “More than anything else, I hope he knows he did the right thing, regardless of what the response from the school district was.”
Brogan said he was disheartened by Tuesday’s hearing, and he felt administrators misrepresented Murph’s contributions to the district, his character and the incident in question.
“He is, to me, a top-three teacher of all time,” Brogan said. “The impact he had on me is, you can’t replicate that.”
Andy Schmidt is the parent of a current Lincoln student, and said he’s relieved about the district’s decision but sad for the community.
“There are underlying issues, and in many ways, Mr. Murph was put into a really tough spot because nobody else was willing to deal with the behavior issues,” Schmidt said.
He said a lack of student accountability for behavior and violence has created a bad environment in some schools.
“I think maybe we worried so much about not over-punishing kids that we did those same kids a disservice by not teaching them to become outstanding members of the community, which is our goal,” he said.
He said the message this would have sent, had Murph been terminated, would be that students can hit teachers without consequences.
In reaction to the hearing and decision, Schmidt said, he’s proud of Murph for choosing to make his termination hearing public. He said that helped bring topics into public conversation.
“Whether or not he handled the situation perfectly, I think it’s good that we’re all talking about it and learning from it, and that he’s not just on his own,” Schmidt said.
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