A social studies teacher in the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Central School District is suing three of his colleagues for $11 million.
Teacher Daniel Pickett claims that school officials and a teacher conspired to get him fired and have ruined his reputation in the community. In doing so, Pickett’s lawyer Brendan Baynes says his civil rights under the First, Fourth and 14th amendments were violated. The suit alleges that the three infringed upon Pickett’s rights to free speech, due process, and equal protection of the law.
Pickett names RCS Superintendent Vicki Wright, former school board of education president and current member John Bonafide, and middle school teacher Robert Lammly in the suit.
During a telephone interview on Friday, Feb. 29, Baynes said of the defendants, They’re being served literally as we speak.
Wright and Bonafide did not return calls for comment on the lawsuit and Lammly declined to comment.
When asked if he were a teacher at RCS, Lammly responded, `It depends on what you’re calling about.` After confirming he was the teacher named in Pickett’s suit and asked for a comment, Lammly said, `I don’t have one at this time. Thank you for calling.`
Pickett’s lawsuit focuses on the three individuals, not the school district. He says he was falsely accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student, his performance reviews were negatively altered, and he was continually investigated ` all in attempts to have him fired for speaking out against the school.
Pickett was hired by RCS in 1989 and is a tenured teacher. He currently teaches at the district’s middle school, where he has worked since 2005.
His suit claims he was demoted to teaching the seventh grade, and, after he was cleared of any wrongdoing in several investigations against him, his request to be reinstated in the high school was denied by the school board, which at the time was chaired by Bonafide.
The demotion was classified as `punitive` by the school because of a poor performance review and was the impetus of his case against his colleagues, according to Pickett’s lawyer, who said the demotion was unwarranted.
Lammly chairs the social studies department in the middle school where Pickett now works.
Baynes contends that Wright either personally revised or instructed Principal Hakim Jones to alter Pickett’s performance review `in order to support Wright and Bonafide’s unconstitutional motives for terminating or constructively terminating Pickett.`
Baynes has advised Pickett not to comment while the litigation is pending.
Pickett contends he was originally targeted when he spoke out against decisions made by the school’s board of education during public meetings. He disagreed with the board’s decision to discontinue its student exchange program in Rome, Italy, and eliminate the position of vice principal in the high school and middle school, according to Baynes.
Subsequently, the lawsuit states, Wright and Bonafide prompted an investigation into an improper relationship between Pickett and a female student that allegedly happened during a 2005 school-sponsored trip to Rome. The female student later publicly denied any relationship occurred, according to Pickett’s lawyer.
Pickett and another teacher chaperoned 31 students to Rome in February of 2005.
Baynes said Pickett was docked pay due to being absent from the school during the Rome trip and failing to properly sign out of school, but he currently retains his same salary. He has also lost his certification to award college credits as an adjunct professor through the University at Albany, as a result of his demotion to the middle school.
Bonafide’s wife, Ann Marie, was given the adjunct professor status and the additional salary that accompanies it, according to Baynes.
`Although his (Pickett’s) economic losses were not huge,` Baynes said, `his reputation has suffered substantially.`
At least one parent asked to have her child removed from Pickett’s classroom due to his rumored relationship with a female student, Baynes said.
Under the unequal protection of the law portion of the lawsuit, Pickett claims other `similarly situated teachers at RCS` were not the subject of prosecution.
The suit specifically cites other teachers in the district who had `an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student; been found to have child pornography on a RCS computer; asked a student to show her breasts to the teacher; downloaded music on RCS computers; failed to sign in and out of school; chaperoned the trip to Rome in February of 2005; failed to wear ID tags; missed schools trips with students but was not docked pay; and missed meetings without penalty.`
These other teachers were not subjected to investigations and psychiatric evaluations like Pickett, said Baynes.
A discovery conference date is set for June in federal court, Baynes said, describing the legal process as `really slow-moving at first.`
“