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A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated retaliation charges filed by a high school principal who claimed he was suspended in violation of his First Amendment rights for speaking out against his school district’s board of education.
David Zehner was suspended by the Jordan, New York-based Jordan-Elbridge board of education in 2010 after he complained about board actions, according to court papers in David Zehner v. The Board of Education of the Jordan-Elbridge School District et al. Among his complaints was the transfer of an elementary school principal to the district office.
He filed suit in U.S. District Court in Syracuse, New York, against the board and its members, charging his suspension was in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment Right to free speech and association.
The district court granted the board summary judgment dismissing the case, which a unanimous three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York overturned. It “is difficult to find a reasonable, non-retaliatory connection between Zehner’s alleged misconduct and the actions the Board took against him,” said the appellate court ruling.
“On the present record…it cannot be said that the Board has established by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have suspended Zehner and filed disciplinary charges against him even in the absence of his protected First Amendment conduct,” said the ruling, in remanding the case for further proceedings.
Mr. Zehner was reinstated in February 2015 and the board was later ordered to pay him $315,900 in legal fees, according to a local news report.