Breaking News: Federal Lawsuit filed against MCS School District & DeMarco Holland (Chief HR Officer)
Here's what you need to know:
Filed on February 2, 2024, a new lawsuit provides context to the public regarding the sudden dismantling of the award winning Student Life Center (SLC) at MHS. A copy of the full 28-page lawsuit can be downloaded below.
In sum, the suit brought by Sarah Barbour against the School District and its Chief HR Officer DeMarco Holland makes the following allegations:
Ms. Barbour, in her new role as Director of the SLC, found evidence of FERPA violations and other legal violations that occurred under prior leadership of the SLC. She describes a system of professional retaliation that followed her reporting of these violations to MCS Central Office, including “hostility and intimidation toward her in the fulfillment of her job duties in every interaction, refusing to give her clear guidance regarding her job duties, and setting her up to fail as pretext for retaliation.”
DeMarco Holland was discriminatory toward Ms. Barbour in multiple ways, including but not limited to: using unfounded complaints to chastise Ms. Barbour on reviews of her performance, (unsuccessfully) attempting to solicit race-based complaints about Ms. Barbour from Black MCS employees to support his retaliation against her, and disparaging her repeatedly to the MCS Board of Education.
DeMarco Holland’s pattern of disparagement of Ms. Barbour resulted in a drastic reduction in SLC functioning, significantly deterring Ms. Barbour from performing her job duties but also preventing the SLC from providing student support to 40+ students in crisis and 190 students in need of therapy services.
Superintendent Grant Rivera stated that the Board of Education was retaliating against her, not for whistleblowing or unfounded race-related claims, but because of the SLC’s support for LGBTQ+ students, stating that there is discontent among Board members about the SLC’s tolerant practices toward LGBTQ+ students, and that budget cuts were intended to target services for this population.
DeMarco Holland in conjunction with other central office leaders engaged in a pattern of intentionally withholding information from MCS stakeholders by requiring Ms. Barbour to terminate contracts and services while punishing her for communicating these changes to the public.
The filing provides detailed examples and context. We encourage you to read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions and connections to the myriad issues Marietta in the Middle has also been reporting on this school year.
