Board defends lawsuit accord
Officials of Brownsville Area School District said their decision to settle with a teacher who was disciplined after photos of her and a stripper surfaced on a social networking site was in the best interest of the taxpayers. This week, the American Civil Liberties Union, who represented Brownsville Spanish teacher Ginger D’Amico, announced in a press conference that a settlement had been reached with the school district after the ACLU and D’Amico threatened to sue.
D’Amico was suspended in January for 30 days, later reduced to 19 days, following a decision by the district after the photos of D’Amico posing with the male stripper at a bachelorette party were posted briefly on Facebook.
As part of the settlement, D’Amico was awarded back pay, a cleared record and $10,000, which she will split with the ACLU.
Solicitor Jim Davis of Davis and Davis Attorneys issued a statement about the settlement on behalf of the district Thursday during a school directors’ meeting.
“The area of law involving the discipline of employees for off-duty or off-work conduct is unsettled. In addition, the area of law involving social media networks and posting of images, messages and the like on such sites is also unsettled,” said Davis. “In other words, the courts have yet to define what out-of-work conduct may or may not be disciplined by a public employer as well as what social media postings may be subject to discipline.”
Davis noted that when faced with the threatened federal lawsuit by the ACLU, the district along with the district’s insurance carrier made an “economic decision” that it was in the best interest of the taxpayers not to involve the district in protracted, time-consuming litigation.
“Suffice it to say that the Brownsville Area School District was directed by its insurance carrier to resolve this matter,” Davis said.
Davis said it was in the best interest of all concerned to resolve the issue as promptly and inexpensively as possible and that was achieved by the ultimate resolution of D’Amico’s grievance and the threatened lawsuit.
“The district wishes to remind all of its employees to be mindful of their moral and ethical obligations as public employees and be extremely careful concerning their involvement with social media networks,” Davis said.
D’Amico will return to the district this fall where she will begin her eighth year as a Spanish teacher there.
Other district employees who were at the party received disciplinary notices in their files. Arbitration for those teachers is scheduled for September.
The ACLU is not representing those employees. According to the ACLU, D’Amico was the only employee suspended because district officials said she was clearly identifiable in one of the photos.