Besendorfer: I wasn't the one who sabotaged Larry Masters' job

One of former Joplin R-8 Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer's affirmative defenses to allegations by former Royal Heights Principal Larry Masters that her lies cost him his administrative position is to point the finger at other people.

In her response to Masters's wrongful discharge lawsuit, filed Feb. 27 in Jasper County Circuit Court, Besendorfer's attorney, Karl Blanchard, lists a number of defenses against Masters' claims including sovereign immunity, the public duty doctrine, and the all-purpose somebody else did it.

To the best knowledge and belief of defendant any decision by the Joplin School Board to rescind its offer to rehire plaintiff as a principal was based upon facts and information gathered and presented by individuals other than the defendant and that said facts and information justified the rescinsion of  his contract.

What exactly was said to the Joplin R-8 Board of Education to cause Masters, a veteran and respected principal, to lose his job, may never be known, thanks to a ruling by Judge David Dally that board member Jim Kimbrough could not talk about anything that occurred in a closed session. That ruling was made at the request of R-8 Attorney John Nicholas, who also received permission from Dally to sit in on depositions even though Masters' lawsuit is against Besendorfer and not the school district.

Masters' attorney appealed Dally's ruling and the Southern District Board of Appeals has set a deadline of March 24 for a response as to why the ruling should not be set aside.

Masters is one of many Joplin R-8 principals who have lost their jobs since the C. J. Huff-Angie Besendorfer regime took over the Joplin Schools. While the two top officials have stayed the same (until Ms. Besendorfer's resignation to become Western Governors University chancellor takes effect at the end of this month) and six of the seven Board of Education members have remained the same since C. J. Huff became superintendent in 2008 and allowed Ms. Besendorfer to handle the principals and teachers, only three principals remain and as noted earlier on the Turner Report, hundreds of teachers have either left or been shown the door, including more than 200 in the past two years.

According to the lawsuit, Masters, who had been Royal Heights principal since 2004, had already been offered a contract for the 2010-2011 school year when Ms. Besendorfer stepped in.

"Defendant intentionally interfered in Plaintiff's expectancy by making false representations about Plaintiff to the Joplin Schools Board of Education. Said representations included, but were not limited to, accusations that Plaintiff had violated the regulations governing administration of the MAP test."

Because of those "misrepresentations," the petition says, "The Board of Education voted on or about April 15, 2010, to rescind its motion to offer the contract of employment to the plaintiff."

The lawsuit lists no defendant other than Ms. Besendorfer. "There was no justification for (her) actions," the petition says.

"As a result of Defendant's actions, Plaintiff has suffered damages, including lost wages, mental and emotional distress."

Besendorfer's actions are referred to as "willful, wanton, and made with the knowledge that they would cause damage to Plaintiff>"

Masters' attorney, Raymond Lampert of Springfield, is asking that Masters receive "lost wages, mental and emotional damage, punitive damages, the costs of this action, and to grant such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper."