When Jim McCloughan retired from teaching in South Haven Public Schools in 2008, MEA helped him fight a battle he hadn’t seen coming.

While the school district credited McCloughan for 40 years of service, the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System (MPSERS) denied two years of time he spent serving in the military as a draftee in the Vietnam War.

“The MEA gave me a lawyer, and we spent four years fighting it in court,” McCloughan said.

McCloughan signed a contract in May 1968 to teach and coach for the 1968-69 school year. He coached that summer but reported for duty in August before the school year started.

State law requires public school employees to earn retirement credit for up to six years of “intervening” military service if they return to public school employment within 24 months of discharge, said attorney Karen Schneider, who represented McCloughan on behalf of MEA.

The state argued McCloughan’s military service was “non-intervening,” because he hadn’t started the job when he was ordered to report for duty, Schneider said. The case went to the Michigan Court of Appeals, which ruled in McCloughan’s favor.

“This is an American hero who performed service for his country and again for his colleagues in public education,” Schneider said. “He took a stand and enforced rights for himself and others who are similarly situated.”

McCloughan said it was a matter of principle. “I wasn’t fighting for big dollars. I was fighting for the kid that was going to come back from Afghanistan or somewhere and not get what is due.”