Teacher who questioned cat dissections sues school district, claims retaliation

A former Newport Harbor High School English teacher is suing Newport-Mesa Unified, alleging that district administrators retaliated against her after she publicly questioned the need for students to dissect cat carcasses in class.

Karen Coyne claims in her Orange County Superior Court lawsuit that the district and several employees created a hostile work environment, violated her free-speech rights and transferred her without her consent.

Coyne is seeking a year of salary and benefits, which amount to about $84,000, plus unspecified damages for emotional distress and pain and suffering, according to court papers.

Newport-Mesa officials declined to comment.

Coyne, a vegan and animal-rights activist, was the advisor for the school’s Compassion in Action club (CIA), an animal-advocacy organization, during her decade at Newport Harbor.

The lawsuit, filed Sept. 9, claims that students had complained to Coyne for years about animal dissection in science and anatomy classes.

In Sept. 2011, then-Principal Michael Vossen sent an email to the school staff that mentioned cat dissections being “a necessary skill in preparing our future surgeons,” the lawsuit states.

In response to Vossen’s email, Coyne sent him information that she hoped to distribute to students about dissection alternatives.

Coyne informed science teachers and the principal that not offering alternative assignments violated the state education code, court papers state.

Vossen accused Coyne of rallying her students against dissection.

In May 2012, Coyne was informed that her teaching schedule had changed for the upcoming school year and that she would no longer have time to advise the CIA club.

She also was directed by district staff to stop discussing the dissection issue, according to court papers.

The next month, Coyne overheard a student in her English class laughing about a fellow student taking one of the cat’s heads used for dissection and placing it in a student’s locker, according to court filings.

“Another student chimed in that the cats were in the pound for over a year and were going to die anyway,” court papers state.

Coyne reached out to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit animal-rights group, after she found that several students had posed for photos with cat corpses and posted the images on Facebook.

One female student held up one of the cats and acted as though she was about to lick the corpse, court papers state.

The animal-rights group sent a letter to the district objecting to the use of cat bodies at Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor high schools. The district notified the group that it would move away from using felines, instead opting for electronic teaching tools in science lessons.

Though the district uses virtual dissection technology in science classes, students also dissect animals or parts, such as owl pellets, squids, frogs, rats, fetal pigs, cow eyes and sheep brains and hearts, said district spokeswoman Laura Boss.

After the district moved away from dissecting cats, Coyne and students in the CIA club allegedly began receiving harassing emails and posts on Facebook.

“You guys are honestly a bunch of scrubs, now I’m going to kill all my household pets and dissect them,” one student wrote on Facebook.

Shortly before the start of the new school year, Coyne’s schedule was changed back and she was able to continue advising the CIA club.

Coyne’s relationship with school administrators and a union representative became increasingly strained in the 2012-13 school year.

School administrators eventually reprimanded Coyne for recording another faculty member without consent.

On the last day of the 2012-13 school year, Coyne was told that she was being transferred to another high school in the district, according to court filings.

“I also know that [Vossen] holds a vendetta against me for sharing info with the media about the dissection issue (which I did only after a year of trying hard to communicate with him, only to be ignored and refused),” Coyne wrote in an email to a district official after being informed of her transfer.

Vossen declined to comment.

Coyne told district officials she was not capable of teaching because of the physical and emotional stress of the transfer and asked for a semester-long medical leave. She was told she would need to take a yearlong, unpaid sabbatical.

Coyne is teaching at Costa Mesa High School this year.