Former teacher files lawsuit against district
A former Snake River School District teacher filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the district.
In the lawsuit filed in federal district court, Elaine Asmus and the Idaho Education Association say her job loss after 28 years in District 52 is because of due process violations.
Asmus was charged with harassment, intimidation, and bullying after she had a disagreement with Superintendent Mark Gabrylczyk’s wife, Laura.
Asmus was found not guilty of all charges. Yet through procedural hoops Asmus says she had jump through, her job was advertised before she had a chance to sign a new contract.
“I’ve been scraped through the mud,” she said. “The win is the public understands the outcome of this trial was set in January. The fate, the ultimate fate the superintendent wanted to occur to me, was set long before the hearing every occurred. He got what he wanted … me out of that district. I had an impeccable immaculate 28 years of evaluations. … One interaction with his wife caused me to lose my job. The outcome is I’ve lost my job after 28 years. She has been in the district not even a year.”
The hearing in January packed the school auditorium. Hundreds of former students showed up or sent emails supporting Asmus. Most weren’t allowed to testify. She said teachers who would have spoken in her behalf were intimidated by Mark Gabrylczyk not to testify.
“I found out my witnesses were threatened,” she said. “If they were to actually witness for me, they were told not to. They were literally told not to by their administrators. … One administrator director told her employee that was going to be my witness, ‘If you knew what was good for you, you won’t get involved.'”
Despite that, Asmus was found not guilty of all charges. But, she said, she was still put on probation by the superintendent.
Asmus said the probation that was set up for her was retaliatory only. She asked to be heard by the school board, and before she could file a grievance about the probation rules, she was past the signing date for her contract and out of a job.
In a news release Wednesday, IEA General Counsel Paul Stark said the superintendent and school board “allowed nepotism and conflicts of interest to trump fair and reasonable conduct.”
Mark Gabrylczyk said Wednesday the district hadn’t been served the lawsuit and had no comment.
Elaine Asmus interview