Fired PUSD school chief’s wife files harassment lawsuit
The wife of fired Poway Unified School District Supt. John Collins is suing the district for sexual harassment, failure to prevent sexual harassment, invasion of privacy and the public disclosure of private facts.
Lisa Johnston-Collins, a 29-year teacher in the district, contends the district failed to take steps that were recommended by former Associate Supt. Tracy Hogarth following her investigation of a Sept. 15, 2015 hostile work environment complaint filed against the district by Lisa Collins, complaining of conduct by three outspoken district administration critics: Kim Garnier, Chris Garnier and Keith Wilson, who is Kim Garnier’s father.
The lawsuit says that Hogarth’s investigation report, dated Nov. 2, 2015, concluded that Collins was “subjected to third-party sexual harassment and exposed to a hostile working environment,” and recommended three courses of action: Wilson was to “cease all disrespectful and offensive remarks via email, social media or publicly in regard to her, her husband or family;” PUSD was to provide paid time off for Collins “to recover from the extraordinary stress of the hostile work environment;” and “PUSD was to provide personal security for Plaintiff and her family as needed.”
Collins teaches fourth and fifth grades at Design 39 Campus. She married John Collins in 1994. Her husband was fired by the school board on July 10 over $345,000 in “overpayments and unauthorized payments” discovered during an audit of his contract.
The 21-page lawsuit was filed July 29 in San Diego Superior Court. Lisa Collins is represented by a Glendale law firm.
The suit says that during the June 22, 2015 public school board meeting, Wilson said that John Collins, while an assistant principal at Twin Peaks Middle School in about 1980, had an affair with an unidentified married teacher at the school. The suit says that Wilson made the same claim at the Aug. 24, 2015 board meeting.
“Many PUSD staff members in the audience knew that Plaintiff was a school teacher at Twin Peaks Middle School when Superintendent Collins was assistant principal, and therefore understood Wilson to be implying that Plaintiff had an extramarital sexual relationship with Superintendent Collins before they were married more than 22 years ago,” the suit says. In the weeks that followed the Aug. 24 meeting, “Wilson, Kim Garnier and/or Chris Garnier sent emails to various recipients, making references to Plaintiff about sexual subjects,” the suit says. On Sept. 5, 2015 Wilson emailed the PUSD board and members of the media “requesting that a Scarlet Letter be presented to Superintendent Collins and Plaintiff to whom he referred to as ‘List Lusk Collins,’” the suit says.
Three days later, Collins filed the first of two complaints with the district, according to the suit.
From March through May of this year “Plaintiff received numerous sexually harassing emails at her PUSD email address where Board members, her supervisors, members of the media and-or lawyers were copied,” the suit says.
Collins on May 20 filed a second sexual harassment complaint against Wilson “and additionally named all Board members as Respondents for failing to intervene to the known, repeated sexual harassment as well as the violation of the first complaint’s cease-and-desist remedy,” the suit says. On June 22 Collins, her attorney and teachers union representative Candace Smiley sent a letter demanding the board authorize an “independent investigation” of the May 20 complaint. Instead, the district assigned the investigation to Sandra Huezo, the district’s newly hired assistant superintendent of personnel support services, according to the suit. While district policy requires such investigations to be completed within 60 days, as of July 19 that had not been done, according to the suit.
The lawsuit also takes issue with the audit report, commissioned by an attorney hired by the school board, which was used in the board’s decision to fire John Collins. The report included attachments with transcripts of emails and texts sent to and from Collins and members of his family. The version released by the board had some sections redacted. However, the suit alleges that the district “left unredacted for public dissemination the texts of multiple private messages between Plaintiff and her husband sent during the period of November 2015 through April 16, where Plaintiff expressed concerns over the family’s finances, and discussed other sensitive, confidential, and embarrassing information about Plaintiff’s private finances.”
“PUSD’s selective redaction cast Plaintiff and her husband in a negative light to the public,” the suit says. It adds that on or about July 11, “PUSD directly or indirectly provided an entirely unredacted copy of the audit report to at least one media source – the online media outlet Voice of San Diego.” According the the suit, Voice of San Diego posted the report online.
According to the lawsuit, “PUSD never informed Plaintiff or her husband John Collins that PUSD would monitor emails and text messages sent on PUSD-issued equipment.”
The suit seeks unspecified general damages, special damages and attorney fees. It also includes a demand for a jury trial.
