A U.S. District judge recently declined to dismiss a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Spotsylvania County Superintendent Mark Taylor against the county’s school board.
Attorneys for the school board requested the dismissal, but Judge Roderick Young denied their petition.
A pretrial hearing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is set for May 21 at 9:50 a.m. via Zoom, at which point a trial date will be determined. Taylor requested a jury trial.
Taylor was fired by the school board last March after a 5-0 vote to terminate his employment with unspecified cause. Board members April Gillespie of the Berkley District and Lisa Phelps of the Lee Hill District were not present at the meeting and are not named in the lawsuit.
Taylor alleges that he was dismissed because he “organized and implemented a book fair” promoting Christian literature on Dec. 2, 2023, at Riverbend High School. He claims that he acted as a private citizen “at all times” and used personal funds to pay for the entirety of the event, a statement the school board’s lawyers said is false in its answer to the allegations.
Taylor’s lawsuit claims that his First Amendment rights were violated because the book fair was an expression of those rights. The fair’s theme was to showcase conservative Christian authors and critics. Taylor partnered with former TV star and Christian conservative Kirk Cameron — who spoke at the event — as well as SkyTree Book Fairs and Brave Books.
SkyTree Book Fairs is a nonprofit organization that describes itself as a “school-choice alternative to the sexually explicit content distributed in Scholastic’s book fairs.” Brave Books is described as a “Christian publishing company that makes books for kids that reinforce biblically based, foundational values.”
Although Taylor’s lawsuit claims he acted as a private citizen, in a video posted to the social media platform ‘X’, Cameron promoted the book fair by noting that the Spotsylvania superintendent is putting it on and was replacing Scholastic book fairs with SkyTree in the school division.
A Facebook invitation from Wilderness Tabernacle of Culpeper and then-Spotsylvania County Public Schools Director of Communications Tara Merenger and then-Chief of Staff Jon Russell also promoted the event by stating “Spotsylvania School Superintendent Mark Taylor invites you to a Christmas book fair with Kirk Cameron.” A Facebook post from the church later thanked “Superintendent Mark Taylor” for hosting the event.
Taylor was placed on administrative leave less than two months after the book fair.
The lawsuit names board members Lorita Daniels, Nicole Cole, Megan Jackson, Carol Medawar and Belen Rodas as defendants. Their request for dismissal stated that individual board members do not have the power to breach a contract. The board also stated in a Feb. 28, 2024, letter to Taylor that the contract he agreed to with former Chair Kirk Twigg was not valid because “there is no evidence that a vote was ever taken to approve Mr. Taylor’s superintendent contract” and that “we don’t believe Mr. Taylor was ever appointed by the board.”
“Taylor failed to state a claim for breach of contract against the individual defendants,” the school board’s answer states. “The individual defendants were not parties to the contract and are incapable of individually breaching the contract as a matter of law. Moreover, the complaint is devoid of facts to support the elements of a breach of contract claim against the individual defendants.”
The board members denied Taylor’s allegations that they violated his First Amendment rights and retaliated against him because of his constitutionally protected free speech and right of association by hosting the book fair. They also denied acting with “reckless and/or callous indifference” to Taylor’s legal rights.
Taylor requested actual damages, general damages, compensatory damages, back pay, front pay, equitable relief and punitive damages, along with interest from the date of his termination. He also asked for incidental and consequential costs associated with the lawsuit, including attorney fees.
