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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 2-469 / 11-1715 Filed October 3, 2012

TERRY CHRISTIANSEN, Petitioner-Appellant, vs. EMPLOYMENT APPEAL BOARD, IOWA WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, AND WEST BRANCH COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Respondents-Appellees. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Johnson County, Douglas S. Russell, Judge.

An unemployment claimant appeals the denial of benefits. AFFIRMED.

Michael J. Pitton and Sarah C. Brandt of Pitton Law, P.C., Iowa City, for appellant. Lars G. Anderson of Holland and Anderson, L.L.P., Iowa City, for appellee West Branch Community School District. Rick Autry of Iowa Employment Appeal Board, Des Moines, for appellee Iowa Employment Appeal Board and Iowa Workforce Development.

Heard by Vogel, P.J., and Danilson and Mullins, JJ.

2 VOGEL, P.J. This appeal arises from the denial of unemployment benefits to petitionerappellant, Terry Christiansen, by the respondents-appellees, Employment Appeal Board (EAB), Iowa Workforce Development (IWD), and the West Branch Community School District (School District). Christiansen sought unemployment benefits after he was terminated from his position as a middle school teacher, coach, and bus driver by the school district. We affirm. I. Background Facts and Proceedings On Friday, September 19, 2008, Christiansen held football practice for the middle school team at the high school football field. After the practice ended, Christiansen was to drive the students back to the middle school. Christiansen was on the bus waiting for a few students to finish showering when several students in the back rows of the bus began to use their water bottles to squirt water at each other. Christiansen was in the driver's seat in the front of the bus. He yelled at the students to quit squirting water but as the activity continued, Christiansen walked part way down the aisle and repeated his request. As

Christiansen turned around to return to the front of the bus, he thought a student--M.K.--raised his middle finger at him in an obscene gesture. What happened next is highly disputed, but on review we take as true the agency's fact findings unless those fact findings are "not supported by substantial evidence in the record before the court when that record is reviewed as a whole." Iowa Code

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