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School Board Plans Appeal On Abrahams

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Ann Arbor News, November 4, 1993
Day
4
Month
November
Year
1993
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Ann Arbor

School board plans appeal on Abrahams

The Ann Arbor Board of Education plans to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court a lower court ruling that the district wrongly fired former teacher and convicted ax murderer Morris Abrahams 13 years ago.

Abrahams was fired from his job as teacher and girls’ basketball coach at Huron High School in 1980 after he was accused of sexual misconduct with several female students.

Four years later, Abrahams killed his wife in the front yard of their home after a quarrel. He was convicted of second-degree murder and is serving a life sentence.

The murder did not figure into the Oct. 19 Court of Appeals decision in Abrahams’ favor. In that decision, the appellate court ruled that the board did not have just cause to fire Abrahams, and ordered the school district to give him $200,000 in back pay.

In appealing the decision, the Ann Arbor board is standing by its contention that the previous board was correct in firing Abrahams, said district spokeswoman Joyce Willis. “I think (the board) has a strong commitment that the behavior of adults in whose hands we place our children must be above reproach,” she said.

The board’s attorney, Jim Tobin, said the district will appeal by the Monday deadline.