Special Ed Director Wins $700K Settlement From California School District – Demoted For Being Queer, And Called “A Witch” In An “LGBTQ Coven”
Tagnesi alleged she faced a campaign of discrimination, and was targeted by an anti-LGBTQ+ majority school board.
Featured Image: via ABC Team 10
The Grossmont Union High School District in California will pay more than $700,000 to settle a lawsuit filed last year by a former special education director, Rose Tagnesi, who allegedly faced a campaign of anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Tagnesi had worked for the school district for 28 years. According to the lawsuit, she was targeted and demoted by an anti-LGBTQ+ majority school board, and coerced to resign because she is a lesbian.
Tagnesi had held the role of district special-ed director since 2010. She was made to leave that role and take a classroom teaching job, after what she described as a secret investigation into a 2020 incident at Santana High School.
The Santana incident involved a student who left school grounds, then went missing for five days during which time she was trafficked. An investigation followed. Other administrators were also demoted, two of whom have lawsuits currently in process. In addition, a lawsuit was filed by the formerly-missing student’s family (Tagnesi was not named in that suit).
The district settled with the student’s family in 2023 for $400,000. Later, they reopened the investigation, bringing an external attorney on board, whom Tagnesi claims was aligned with three board members who were anti-LGBTQ. The lawsuit alleges that the attorney was hired to “conduct a witch hunt” of her.
Tagnesi also claimed her supervisor once told her to “keep a low profile” about her sexual orientation because board members might not promote her if they found out she was gay. She alleged that the investigation’s lead attorney wrote in a text, “one down, one to go” after another staff member was dismissed; she believed that remark was referencing her, and the board’s targeting of her as the next one to push out. In her lawsuit, she states that a school trustee, Jim Kelly, referred to her and a female staff member as “lesbians” and “witches who are part of an LGBTQ coven.”
The lawsuit also alleged that Jim Kelly had made “disparaging remarks” about a staffer whom he claimed was not qualified, and only hired because “she is hot” and Tagnesi is a lesbian.
In addition to targeting Tagnesi specifically, she believed there was a wider “discriminatory campaign” at play—undertaken by a board that was predominantly anti-queer. The district had also reportedly previously banned books with LGBTQ+ content and ended its contract with a mental-health provider who offered specialized services to LGBTQ+ people.
Image: Grossmont Union High School District
“Ms. Tagnesi, a proud member of the LGBTQ community who served GUHSD for over 28 years in exemplary fashion, was one of the many victims of the anti-LGBTQ majority board’s discriminatory campaign,” her lawsuit said.
“We feel incredibly honored Ms. Tagnesi allowed us to represent her in this matter. She bravely stood up in the face of adversity, not only on behalf of herself but all members of the LGBTQ+ community,” Tagnesi’s attorney Aaron Olsen, Partner with Haeggquist & Eck, LLP, shared with GO. “Over many years, she was tirelessly dedicated to her students — and she has now gone to great lengths to ensure a culture of inclusivity is created for them.”
Under the terms of the settlement, the district must put $700,000 in an account for future payments to her over two decades, and immediately pay her about $19,000. As part of the deal, the district will pay her lawyers about $481,000. In settling, the district was neither admitting wrongdoing nor validating the suit’s claims, according to their spokesperson.
“This settlement is incredibly important not only for me, but for what it signals to members of the larger LGBTQ+ community: a clear recognition that their rights matter, and that they are important,” Tagnesi said in a statement shared by her attorney. “In the future, I’m hopeful the district will take decisive action toward creating the culture of inclusivity its students and teachers deserve.”
