Attorneys for suspended Osborn School teacher Carin Mehler today filed a lawsuit naming individual Board of Education members, Superintendent Dr. Frank Alvarez, Osborn Principal Angela Garcia, former Interim Superintendent for Curriculum Mary Ann Evangelist and District attorney Gus Mountanos for good measure.

 

By Sarah Varney

 

Attorneys for suspended Osborn School teacher Carin Mehler today filed a lawsuit naming individual Board of Education members, Superintendent Dr. Frank Alvarez, Osborn Principal Angela Garcia, former Interim Superintendent for Curriculum Mary Ann Evangelist and District attorney Gus Mountanos for good measure.

 

Board members Laura Slack, Nancy Pasquale, Karen Belanger, Nicole Weber, Chris Repetto, Katy Keohane Glassberg, and former Board member Kendall Egan are named individually in the suit. Outgoing board member Ed Fox is not included in the suit.

 

The suit charges the defendants with depriving Ms. Mehler of her right to teach in order to coerce a waiver of due process rights, and “deprivation of liberty interest without due process” essentially impinging on Ms. Mehler’s future career opportunities by damaging her reputation.

 

The suit asks for an apology, an admission from the District that it has no evidence against Ms. Mehler, and $1 million from each defendant for punitive damages and $1 million from each for compensatory damages. It also includes a request for a jury trial.

 

A short time after the suit was filed, the Board of Education issued a statement calling the suit baseless and without merit.