Officials with a Michigan public school district contacted employers of parents who criticized the district’s COVID-19 policies and allegedly even kept files on problematic parents. And one of those parents — who filed a lawsuit against the district — said she was fired after the district contacted her boss.
What are the details?
Robert Shaner, superintendent of Rochester Community Schools, said in a deposition that he called Detroit police about a problematic parent who worked as an officer, according to the Daily Wire, which cited a recent Detroit News report: “I said I was concerned about his behavior and, from his Facebook post, what he does for a living with the department. The assistant chief said she would look into it and contact their legal counsel.”
Shaner added that the parent “mentioned that people should go to people’s homes and protest. … I took his language as aggressive, concerning,” the outlet said, citing the the News.
The superintendent’s Feb. 3 deposition was connected to a lawsuit against him and the district brought by parent Elena Dinverno, the Daily Wire said, citing the News — and Shaner also noted in the deposition that the school board monitored parents’ social media feeds.
More from the Daily Wire:
The suit also alleges that two of the district’s public affairs specialists and spokeswomen were regularly assigned to screenshot comments made in Facebook groups that criticized the district. The screenshots were then allegedly compiled in dossiers, with notes from the officials, which included personal information about the parents — their employers, their children’s names and the schools they attended. These dossiers were allegedly circulated to school board members and administrators, the Detroit News reported. “I have found at taxpayer expense they had high-level people spending hours monitoring parents’ social posts,” Sarah Gordon [Thomas], Dinverno’s lawyer, told the Detroit News. “I was stunned. I have a stack that is like a phone book. This was an active group that wanted their kids back in school.”
The outlet, citing the lawsuit, said the Facebook groups in question — “RCS Parents for In-Person Education” and “Conservative Parents for Rochester” — were created in opposition to the shift to remote learning in April 2020 over the spread of the coronavirus.
In addition, a number of parents — including Dinverno — got cease-and-desist letters from school district lawyers telling them to stop criticizing the board, claiming that their social media posts were “false [and] injurious to the Board, and threaten further injury if left uncorrected,” the Daily Wire said, citing the News, adding that that the letters allegedly threatened legal action.
Your position no longer is necessary
Dinverno also said she lost her job after the district’s Deputy Superintendent Debi Fragomeni called her employer and claimed Dinverno “was part of a group that was making threats against the school district,” which Dinverno’s attorneys insisted in an amended version of the complaint was a false accusation, Fox News reported.
While the district in a court filing acknowledged that a deputy superintendent made a call, the district’s attorneys denied any wrongdoing, the Associated Press reported.
Dinverno was called to her employer’s HR department and told to watch what she said online, WJBK-TV reported, adding that after further run-ins with the school board, Dinverno said she was fired and told her position no longer was necessary.
But the station, citing Dinverno, added that a job opening for the same position appeared on LinkedIn a few weeks later.
Fox News said the school district didn’t immediately respond to its inquiry on the matter.
Now what?
Dinverno’s primary attorney, Deborah Gordon, on Tuesday told the AP that a tentative deal to settle her client’s lawsuit was reached, but no details of the settlement were released. Sarah Gordon Thomas, noted previously, also is an attorney for Dinverno.
But trouble is still brewing in the district, as the AP said calls for Shaner’s resignation rang out at a meeting Monday.
“We have to address … the abusive and bullying behavior by our district that has been condoned by our board of education,” Andrew Weaver told the school board, according to the AP.
Rochester school board member Joe Pittel is proposing an anti-retaliation policy that would prevent district officials from taking action against people who make a “good-faith complaint” or question policies, the AP also said.