The lower court said solid evidence backed her firing - but it wasn't in the record
A Mississippi appeals court revived a fired principal's appeal - not over her 89 absences, but over an incomplete record she never got to fix.
On August 4, 2026, the Court of Appeals of Mississippi reversed a lower court's decision and sent a former elementary school principal's case back for another look. The reason had nothing to do with the strength of the case for firing her - and everything to do with the record behind it.
The former principal worked for the Jackson Public School District. Over the 2021-2022 school year she missed about 89 days of work, which the court said exceeded her Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) time and all of her paid and unpaid leave. She said the absences stemmed from a "seizure condition and related medical conditions," though the appeals court noted that no medical records confirming the condition appeared in the record it reviewed.
In February 2022, the district issued a formal letter of reprimand, saying her "continuous absenteeism ha[d] become quite problematic," and reassigned her from principal to a curriculum-supervisory role the same day. When her attendance did not improve, the district terminated her on June 1, 2022. A school board hearing upheld the firing.
She then took her case to the Hinds County Chancery Court, combining an appeal of her termination with discrimination and retaliation claims under the FMLA, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Federal Rehabilitation Act. The chancery court dismissed everything.
The appeals court found a basic problem: the record the lower court reviewed did not include the transcript or exhibits from the school board hearing. Even so, the lower court's order stated that the reasons for the firing were "supported by substantial evidence adduced at the termination hearing" - evidence that was not in the record. The appeals court called that gap grounds for reversal, and said the principal should have been told about the deficiency and given 14 days to fix it before dismissal.
The court also drew a jurisdictional line HR and legal teams should note: an employee cannot bolt federal discrimination claims onto this kind of narrow, statutory appeal of a school board decision. Two judges went further, writing that the chancery court has no authority to decide such federal and state claims in this statutory appeal.
The court did not rule on whether the firing was lawful or whether any discrimination occurred. It sent the case back for a proper review on a complete record.
