Pitt McGehee Palmer Bonanni & Rivers Files Lawsuit Against Grosse Pointe Public School System and Others for Employee’s Wrongful Termination Over Political Beliefs
Pitt, McGehee, Palmer, Bonanni, & Rivers represent Mary Anne Brush, a former employee of Grosse Pointe Public School System (GPPSS), in a lawsuit against GPPSS and members of the GPPSS Board of Education for wrongful termination over perceived political affiliations.
In the summer of 2023, Ms. Brush alleged she was fired due to the changing political landscape on GPPSS’s school board. GPPSS Board of Education President Ahmed Ismail, Vice President Lisa Papas, Treasurer Sean Cotton, and Trustee Ginny Jeup did not follow standard procedure for budget cuts and instead unilaterally passed a board-developed budget proposal, which included Brush's termination.
Brush joined Grosse Pointe Public Schools in February 2021, after working as a reporter at the Grosse Pointe News for five years. As a reporter, Brush had been investigating whether Cotton's family was funding a 2019 recall effort targeting three Grosse Pointe school board members. When Grosse Pointe News was sold to Cotton in 2020, Brush quickly lost her job and went on to work for the Board. During her time on the Board, Brush witnessed several instances of heavy right-leaning decisions impacting the school district, including the Board striking down a medical center that would provide students with vaccines, mental health care, and other services and the Board helping organize the event "Michigan Conservatives-Take Back Michigan-2024" for local conservative group FEC United.
Additionally, personal attacks on their political beliefs were thrust at Brush and others.
When the Board needed to cut $4 million in expenses in February 2023, Papas, Cotton, Jeup, and Ismail proposed further cuts in direct opposition to the administration’s recommendations, which included eliminating Brush's position, even though she received high ratings and was celebrated by the school district’s administrators. Brush alleges GPPSS, and its Board of Education violated her First and Fourteenth Amendment Rights by terminating her over political beliefs.
These acts not only harmed Brush but continue to feed into a greater and dangerous political divide affecting our nation. Our firm is dedicated to making sure justice prevails and ceasing the recurrence of such targeted acts.
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Detroit Free Press: https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2024/06/07/lawsuit-grosse-pointe-schools-political-mary-ann-brush/73982438007/