Burke County Public Schools issued a statement regarding a former custodian’s lawsuit against the county’s Board of Education and several district officials that alleged the district fired the plaintiff, Taylor Parlier, in retaliation. Days prior to the district’s statement, Parlier informed Carolina Public Press that she would no longer be pursuing the lawsuit.
After CPP’s reporting on the case, the district responded publicly to the lawsuit’s allegations, asserting that the plaintiff’s claims were false and the plaintiff was fired for insubordination.
Parlier alleged in the lawsuit the district fired her in retaliation after she raised safety concerns at Drexel Elementary, weeks before Drexel police arrested a man for a school shooting threat toward the same school.
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She said one of the items she notified Burke County Public Schools about was another custodian, who is unnamed in the court documents, who allowed unauthorized individuals to enter the school after school hours on several occasions including her children and her boyfriend.
According to the lawsuit, she filed a formal complaint in March regarding workplace safety, access issues and workload distribution but informally complained to her manager several times prior to March, she said.
In its statement, BCPS said this “is not accurate information” and Parlier complained “in passing.”
“Rather, she wrote a message complaining about a coworker’s performance and mentioned in passing that the coworker’s boyfriend and occasionally her children would come to the school building during work hours,” the statement said.
“At no point did she indicate that this was a safety or security problem. Simply put, these were family members of the coworker and thus her complaint did not involve a ‘safety concern.’”
BCPS Public Relations Officer Cheryl Shuffler said every Burke County school has a protocol for visitors that requires a check-in at the front office, and supervisors handle instances where a family member visits an employee.
“A family member coming to the job site would be handled by a supervisor just like at any other work site. Obviously, there are a myriad of different reasons that a family member might come to the work site,” Shuffler said.
“The point for our response was that there is no relationship between the events at Drexel and a comment made by this employee about family members at the work site.”
BCPS said Parlier did notify Drexel principal Leanna McKinney, who is named as a defendant in the suit, of a car in front of the school outside of operating hours on a separate occasion. The statement said McKinney contacted law enforcement and notified Parlier as such.
Law enforcement “responded to the school that evening to address the concern,” the statement said. The district said this incident “was not a ‘safety concern’ related to the running of Drexel Elementary by the principal and other school staff.”
Police arrested Brandon Dean Johnson March 24 for a school shooting threat toward Drexel Elementary. Reports said Drexel Police discovered he had floor plans of the school, “a manifesto” and several firearms.
Parlier told CPP in July she does not know whether Johnson was directly linked to her coworker, but the lack of transparency about the actions the school was taking about her safety concerns made her wonder whether that was the case given that she said her coworker had brought in unauthorized individuals in the past.
BCPS said it was not made aware of a potential threat to Drexel prior to police arresting Johnson because law enforcement was surveilling him and did not want to compromise the investigation. BCPS said in the statement it received no information until after Johnson’s arrest.
The district said Parlier did not raise concerns that pointed to the school shooting threat, and her termination was not related.
“To the point, this employee did not raise any concern that would in any way relate to the recent arrest of an individual by the Drexel Police Department,” the statement said. “In fact, the former employee was terminated due to insubordination. ‘Safety concerns’ were never mentioned by the employee until she filed her lawsuit and began speaking with the media.”
“The Burke County Board of Education and all our employees take the safety and security of students we serve very seriously. Please know that we will continue to work closely with law enforcement and follow the security and safety protocols already in place to ensure the safety of our community.”
Aug. 16, days before BCPS released its statement, Parlier, who was representing herself in court, informed CPP she would no longer be pursuing the lawsuit. Parlier did not respond to further questions prior to publication.
CPP contacted the school district ahead of publication of its initial article on the lawsuit, but district officials chose not to comment at that time.
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