A United States District Court judge says part of a Mansfield Independent School District art teacher's discrimination lawsuit against the district can move forward.
Stacy Bailey sued Mansfield ISD after she was removed from her elementary classroom after a parent complained that she discussed sexual orientation with students.
Bailey is a lesbian, and she alleges that Mansfield ISD, Superintendent Jim Vaszauskas, and Associate Superintendent for Human Resources Kimberley Cantu violated her rights to equal protection and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.
According to a memorandum and opinion order from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Bailey argues that the defendants violated her Fourteenth Amendment rights by unlawfully discriminating against her because of her sexual orientation, making false allegations that she was engaging in unprofessional acts, placing her on an eight-month administrative suspension, and eventually transferring her to a different school district.
Bailey was transferred after she allegedly showed a photo of her female fiancé along with other family photographs to her second grade students and mentioned to her fourth grade students that a certain artist was married to someone of the same sex.
She has since returned to a high school classroom within the district.
The judge ruled that some other allegations in the suit should be granted while others be dismissed. The most serious allegation of discrimination by the teacher can move forward, while two other allegations have been dismissed.
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According to The Dallas Morning News, the judge dismissed all claims against Assistant Superintendent Kimberley Cantu late Thursday, stating that Bailey failed to show that Cantu's actions were "objectively unreasonable."
No final ruling has been issued.
