RUTLAND — Former Windsor School Principal Tiffany Riley has asked a U.S. District Court judge to rule that the Mount Ascutney School District Board fired her in June rather than a later date, as the district has claimed, according to court documents.
In a motion filed by Riley’s attorney, William Meub, in U.S. District Court in Rutland on Friday, Meub asked a judge to rule on the date Riley was fired.
He also asked a judge to rule that she was fired solely because of Facebook posts about the Black Lives Matter movement which district officials deemed offensive, and that the district failed to hold the proper termination hearing before letting her go.
The motion seeking summary judgment comes as part of a larger lawsuit Meub and Riley brought against the district over the summer, claiming she was fired unjustly and that the district violated her First Amendment rights.
Riley, in an affidavit filed Friday supporting the motion, wrote that she believed she had been fired in June, and that the district refused to schedule a hearing, which is required by state law. She also wrote that prior to her firing, she had contracted COVID-19 in March and spent six days in a hospital intensive care unit before returning to school and working 10- to 12-hour days.
The school district has long disputed Meub and Riley’s claims. District officials have said they fired Riley in October, following a proper termination hearing in September.
The motion is the latest in a lengthy legal back-and-forth between Riley and the school district, which began with the post Riley wrote on Facebook on June 10.
“I firmly believe Black Lives Matter, but I DO NOT agree with coercive measures taken to get this point across; some of which are falsified in an attempt to prove a point,” she wrote, adding, “While I want to get behind BLM, I do not think people should be made to feel they have to choose black race over human race.”
The post drew outcry among community members, including from some district officials like Superintendent David Baker, who called Riley and asked her to write an apology. Though Riley initially refused, she did later take down the post.
However, the School Board decided June 12 to put Riley on paid administrative leave.
In an email that same day, Baker told Riley the board saw “no path forward” for her and that the board would negotiate an “exit strategy” according to her lawsuit.
Riley and Meub cite the board’s decision to put her on leave, as well as Baker’s email to Riley and other, similar public statements made by board members, as evidence that she was actually terminated in June, not October.
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.