An Iowa school teacher who was fired for printing a T-shirt with a suggestive comment on it is entitled to jobless benefits, a judge has ruled.
State records indicate Nancy Duncan, a high school science teacher for the Waukee Community School District, owned and operated a side business making custom, made-to-order T-shirts for customers.
At some point last year, a student’s parents contacted Duncan and asked her to make a shirt for their graduating child that said, “You, my friend, should’ve been swallowed.” The shirt was given to the graduating student during their graduation party in May 2025.
That same month, the school district fielded a complaint from a parent listing a series of inappropriate statements Duncan had allegedly made to students. At that point, the district also became aware that Duncan had made an inappropriate T-shirt for a student.
According to state records, Duncan met with her superiors and denied ever making the alleged statements to students, but was placed on administrative leave while the district investigated. As part of that investigation, a district official allegedly took the list of statements attributed to Duncan and recited them to Duncan’s students, asking whether Duncan had actually made the comments.
According to the district, some of the students indicated Duncan had made the comments – but at a subsequent hearing on the matter, district officials did not provide the specific details as to when the statements were made, which of them had been confirmed by the students, or the context of the statements.
The allegation regarding the T-shirt was confirmed by the district when the graduating student wore the shirt during the check-out process on their final day of school. According to state records, the parents who had commissioned the T-shirt offered to explain the situation to Waukee administrators, but district officials were unwilling to discuss the matter.
At some point during the investigation, a human resources worker for the district told Duncan’s union representative that the investigation was not going well for Duncan and the district was planning to fire her due to the T-shirt incident unless she agreed to resign first.
In early June, Duncan and the district entered into a negotiated separation agreement, which provided Duncan with regular wages and benefits through Aug. 31, 2025, plus a $5,000 lump sum payment, in return for her resignation. As part of that written agreement, the district stipulated that it had agreed “not to contest any claim” by Duncan for unemployment compensation.
In September, however, Duncan applied to Iowa Workforce Development for unemployment benefits, and the district contested her claim. That led to an initial fact-finding hearing, and then to a December 2025 hearing before Administrative Law Judge Carly Smith, who recently ruled in Duncan’s favor and awarded her benefits.
In her decision, Smith ruled that Duncan’s “making the T-shirt for the graduating student was poor judgment” but did not rise to the level of disqualifying, job-related misconduct for the purpose of determining unemployment eligibility.
“The parents of the graduating student asked (Duncan) to make it for them as a gift since she has a business making custom T-shirts,” Smith noted. “This was not an unsolicited shirt that was given to the student through (Duncan’s) own initiative.”
As for the statements Duncan was alleged to have made to students, Smith said the district had relied upon “hearsay within hearsay to prove misconduct.” She noted that the complaining parent’s email lacked specific details of the purported statements, and that the district had offered no first-hand witnesses or signed statements to substantiate the allegations.
Smith ruled that because Duncan did not voluntarily resign her position and was essentially fired, and because the district lacked credible evidence to prove job-related misconduct, Duncan was entitled to jobless benefits.
District officials declined to comment on the case when contacted by the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Duncan’s attorney, Nathan Arnold, said in a written statement, “We strongly support Iowa’s amazing teachers and their right to have a life outside of school. The school did not provide any supporting documents or testimony to establish employment misconduct and by law they have the burden to prove that claim. As such, like any Iowan, Nancy was able to collect unemployment benefits related to her termination of employment. That is why unemployment benefits exist. We thank Iowa Workforce for their wisdom, insight, and thoughtful consideration.”
Records show that in 2021, Duncan was the recipient of the Iowa Academy of Science’s Excellence in Science Teaching Award.
