Gallup Teacher Claims Firing Was Retaliation for Union Leadership Role

Sawyer Masonjones told Gallup-McKinley County Schools Superintendent Mike Hyatt on a Friday in January that he had become president of the local teachers union. The following Monday, he received a letter from Hyatt informing him he was under investigation. Six months later, the school board fired him.

Masonjones, who says he received the highest rating on all his teacher evaluations before taking on the union role, contends the investigation and subsequent termination were retaliation for leading the McKinley County Federation of United School Employees Local 2212, a chapter of the American Federation of Teachers of New Mexico. The district says the firing followed a legitimate investigation.

"They're saying I was allowing vaping in my classroom, which again did not happen," Masonjones said.

Superintendent Hyatt described the allegations against Masonjones as including "not teaching, having lunch with students alone, grooming students that they would, when an administrator came into the class that he would tell them to start working." Hyatt said the investigation was based on interviews with students and teachers and other evidence of the accusations.

Masonjones says the state Public Education Department conducted its own investigation and ultimately cleared him of any wrongdoing, a claim the district has not publicly addressed. "Put me under a microscope. I'm not doing the things that they're claiming that I'm doing," he said.

The dispute extended beyond the classroom. The month after the investigation began, Masonjones says the district removed the personal care assistant assigned to his child, who has autism, without any prior notice or meeting. He called that removal a possible violation of federal special education law. "No warning, no meeting, which to my understanding is illegal with IDEA, with the act that governs special education," he said. The removal prompted involvement from the state Public Education Department.

The district, through an official identified only as Hanks, denied that any retaliation occurred. "The District does not discriminate or retaliate against staff," Hanks wrote in an email. "We look forward to working together with all members of staff and the community and will continue to support a productive and positive working environment."

Masonjones' case sits inside a broader pattern of complaints about the district's treatment of employees. Separate reporting from The New Mexican described what current and former staff called a culture of fear, with several employees alleging retaliation after raising concerns about hiring and promotion practices or the treatment of colleagues. One 20-year veteran teacher was fired after questioning a school policy that did not accommodate her circumstances following the death of her daughter.

Many of the complaints center on Hyatt, who joined the district as a math teacher in the early 2000s and became superintendent in 2017. A 2023 complaint filed with the state Department of Justice described him as having "a reputation for being arrogant" and said "many of his actions as a leader are more akin to being a bully."

A Navajo teacher who testified before a state commission said it was the first time she felt protected enough to speak openly about retaliation by district officials. Her principal later strongly discouraged her from being named publicly, warning her teaching contract could be at risk. Graham McNeill, president of MCFUSE, said no such clause exists in teacher contracts.

The commission, whose full name has not been disclosed in available records, recommended that the state Department of Justice conclude an investigation into disciplinary disparities it opened in 2023, called for a financial audit to address funding gaps for schools on tribal land, and urged a formal memorandum between the district and the Navajo Nation. Its findings concluded that the oversight institutions meant to hold the district accountable had failed to do so.