Principal Died From Stress of Teachers’ Test, Widow Says

LITTLE ROCK — A high school principal’s widow says he died from a heart attack caused by stress over taking the state’s teacher competency test, the first such test in the nation.

Juanita Mosley said Thursday that her husband, William C. Mosley, 60, principal at the high school in McGehee in southeastern Arkansas, took the basic skills test in reading, writing and math March 23 and died the next day.

Arkansas teachers and administrators must pass the test by June, 1987, to renew their teaching certificates. About 28,000 teachers have taken the test and 90% have passed.

Oscar Hirby, director of the state Public Employees’ Workers’ Compensation Claims Division, said a claim for benefits filed by Mosley’s widow was rejected because of an “insufficient showing of evidence that the illness or injury arose out of and occurred during the course of employment.”