A Central Bucks teacher is suing the district, saying it retaliated against him for helping a transgender student

A Central Bucks teacher has sued the school district, alleging that it retaliated against him for helping a transgender student file a federal civil rights complaint after administrators failed to respond to bullying and harassment claims.

The lawsuit, filed by Andrew Burgess in federal court Tuesday, is the latest allegation related to Central Bucks’ treatment of LGTBQ students. In October, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of seven transgender and nonbinary students, accusing the district of creating a hostile environment through discriminatory policies and a failure to address bullying.

Burgess had also filed a complaint with the federal education department’s Office for Civil Rights on behalf of one of those students before he was suspended from teaching eighth-grade social studies at Lenape Middle School in May 2022. He was reinstated several months later, but reassigned to seventh grade at Unami Middle School, with a higher workload.

The ACLU, which is representing Burgess in the lawsuit seeking damages and a restoration of his former position, says the suspension and subsequent reassignment were retaliatory, violating the teacher’s First Amendment rights and his rights under Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in education programs on the basis of sex.

“This is a school district that really does nothing to try to improve the really toxic environment for LGBTQ+ students,” said Vic Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, noting that following the ACLU complaint, the school board passed a policy prohibiting Pride flags and other forms of “advocacy” in classrooms. But “the law has limits on how far they can go to intimidate and retaliate against people who don’t want to follow their agenda.”

The district did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

After students protested Burgess’ suspension, the district’s superintendent, Abram Lucabaugh, said in a message to the community in May 2022 that “the insinuation that our district would single out a teacher and take disciplinary action because the teacher supports LGBTQIA+ students is defamatory, and from what has transpired over the past week, it is also inflammatory.”

Burgess’ lawsuit, which is filed against the district and Lucabaugh, comes in addition to an Office of Civil Rights complaint he filed contesting his suspension. His lawsuit describes an “increasingly hostile” environment for LGBTQ students that worsened around the heated school board elections in November 2021, when Republicans cemented their majority on the board.

Community members that year had been criticizing LGBTQ-themed books, and in summer 2021, one middle school teacher’s classroom library came under attack on social media — leading administrators to audit the library to determine whether it contained “inappropriate” material, Burgess said in the lawsuit.

That had “an intimidating effect,” Burgess said, and so in March 2022, when Lenape Principal Geanine Saullo asked that teachers with a classroom library meet with her individually, Burgess advocated instead for a group meeting. Saullo said no, he said.

At a subsequent meeting with the union and administration, Burgess said he asked who determined what books were appropriate.

“Lucabaugh, visibly angered, sternly and dismissively retorted something to the effect of, ‘You know what we are talking about,’” Burgess said.

(The district later passed a policy prohibiting “sexualized content” in library books; the ACLU contends that the aim is targeting LGBTQ-themed material.)

» READ MORE: Here are the objections cited in 61 challenges to Central Bucks’ library books

That same month, Burgess said he was approached by a transgender student who was being bullied. Burgess had recently attended a meeting of Lenape’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance. He was there to voice support, he said, in light of an email the school’s former assistant principal had sent Lucabaugh, Saullo, and the school board, “advising that LGBTQ+ students were experiencing terrible harassment at CBSD schools, particularly Lenape.”

According to Burgess, the assistant principal “reported incidents of students barking at and pushing LGBTQ+ students in the hallway, throwing objects at them, threatening to beat them, and using the ‘f’ slur.”

Burgess had previously steered the transgender student to a guidance counselor after the student said he had been repeatedly deadnamed — referred to by his former name — by a fellow student. The student’s family had also reached out to administrators, Burgess said. But the bullying was still continuing.

Burgess proposed reporting the issue to administrators, but the student didn’t want to — fearing notification of the bullies’ parents and possible retaliation, Burgess said.

Having “serious doubts that the administration was taking appropriate action to keep students safe from bullying based on LGBTQ+ status,” Burgess then suggested going to the Office for Civil Rights. He said he advised the student and his family on both options, and they decided they wanted Burgess to file the federal complaint.

The complaint — received by the federal office April 13, 2022 — alleged that the district had discriminated against a transgender student and requested “training for staff and students, particularly about equity and acceptance of LGBTQ+IA students and staff,’” according to Burgess.

» READ MORE: Central Bucks anticipates Duane Morris will bill $1 million for addressing anti-LGBTQ complaints about the district

On April 19, Burgess said he was called to meet with Lucabaugh, Saullo, and the district’s then-director of human resources, Andrea DiDio Hauber. The administrators criticized him over the classroom library issue, he said, and then Lucabaugh changed the subject — asking Burgess whether he knew he was a “mandated reporter.”

Pennsylvania law requires teachers, among other professions, to report suspected child abuse to a state-run tip line, and then notify their school.

Burgess, bringing up the federal complaint, said the bullying he described “did not qualify as child abuse” and was not subject to mandatory reporting.

The admission of the complaint “elicited a fiery back and forth with Lucabaugh,” said Burgess, who left the meeting “in a state of panic.”

On May 4, Burgess informed students he thought would be affected by new rules at Lenape requiring a formal process before transgender students could go by preferred names and pronouns. Students went to the guidance office, and Burgess was then questioned by Saullo and an assistant principal about why he sent them there.

Two days later, Burgess was escorted from the building. A letter handed to him by DiDio Hauber accused him of “dereliction” of his obligations to the bullied student, “as well as a deliberate failure to follow the proper protocol so that the administration could address and rectify these bullying conditions.” “Indeed, your actions may have been responsible for the continuation of the bullying suffered by the student,” the letter continued.

Burgess said district policy doesn’t mandate teachers report bullying to administrators — though he often had. He also said he never directed the family not to contact administrators. (He also objected to the letter’s characterization of the discussion over classroom libraries — saying he never directed teachers not to speak with Saullo.)

And after Burgess’s suspension, the district “took no discernable action” to help the student, Burgess said. He said the student ate lunch in the guidance office for the rest of the school year to avoid bullying in the cafeteria, and for the first two weeks of school in the fall, ate in a bathroom stall.

Burgess, who was interviewed by lawyers the district hired from the Duane Morris firm to address the ACLU complaint, said the district ordered him not to discuss the interview.

Instead of implementing practices to support LGBTQ students, the school district is “spending a ton of money doubling down to defend the trajectory they’re on,” Walczak said.