Thread by @JewhadiTM

In $5.5 million lawsuit, former Portland schools leader says district fired him over conservative social media posts oregonlive.com/education/2020…

Joe La Fountaine was the regional superintendent of high schools in the 2018-19 school year for Oregon’s largest school district, which teaches about 49,000 students.
The suit claims he was fired because of his conservative social media posts.

La Fountaine’s suit said that he received an email on June 15 from PPS administrator Jonathan Garcia that included copies of political quotes and memes that were posted on La Fountaine’s social media page. The district objected to these posts, the suit claims.

“These ‘memes’ consisted of a quote attributed to George Washington about second amendment rights, a quote attributed to JFK, and a meme expressing that women with conservative political views are disbelieved by media more often than women with liberal political views.”

All of the content was “objectively inoffensive,” reflected “mainstream political views” and was protected speech, the suit said. It did not impact La Fountaine’s ability to do his job, the suit holds.

Administrators asked him to retire or resign. La Fountaine refused.

Then on June 17, Portland Public Schools cut off his district email and deactivated the electronic key to his office, the suit said. He was subsequently terminated.

Part of the damages, $500,000, is for wrongful termination.