Ex-Grosse Pointe schools employee says she was fired over political beliefs, files lawsuit
A former Grosse Pointe Public Schools employee is suing the district and four board members after she claims she was unfairly swept up in districtwide budget cuts in 2023, targeted by conservative school board members because of her progressive views and support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Attorneys for Mary Anne Brush filed the lawsuit in federal court on Friday. Brush is a former communications coordinator for Grosse Pointe Public Schools; she was terminated in the summer of 2023, according to the suit. School board documents show Brush's position as eliminated within the district.
But according to Brush and the lawsuit filed this week, she was cut not due to budget balancing, but due to a changing political landscape on Grosse Pointe's school board, one that mirrors the wave of increasing political jockeying on school boards across the country. The suit claims the board did not follow district procedure for budget cuts and instead four conservative members of the board — Board President Sean Cotton, Ahmed Ismail, Lisa Papas and Ginny Jeup — favored a board-developed budget cut proposal, which included Brush's termination.
"I do think everybody can agree that when it comes to elected officials abusing their power, whether it comes to promote their political agenda or their special interests, we need to hold them accountable," Brush said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press. "That's what I'm doing and why I'm bringing this lawsuit."
Alexa Tedeschi, a spokeswoman for the school district, said Superintendent Andrea Tuttle did not have a comment on the case. Voicemail messages left on phone numbers associated with Cotton, Papas, Ismail and Jeup were not returned.
Political undertones on Grosse Pointe's board
Brush started in Grosse Pointe Public Schools in February 2021, after working as a reporter at the Grosse Pointe News for five years. At the district, Brush helped answer media inquiries, developed promotional material and wrote stories to promote the district as a part of her job.
At the Grosse Pointe News, she had already been in a tangle with Sean Cotton in 2019 while she was the education reporter.
According to the lawsuit, she had been investigating whether Cotton's family was funding a 2019 recall effort targeting three Grosse Pointe school board members. It's unclear whether Cotton was behind that effort. In December 2020, the Grosse Pointe News was sold to Cotton, a local attorney and "scion to a family fortune," according to the lawsuit. Brush lost her job under the new owner, her suit claims.
After Brush joined the school district and new members, including Cotton, were elected as Grosse Pointe board members, the board began to engage in political controversies in and out of meetings, the suit claims:
In one instance, Grosse Pointe North High School received a $300,000 grant for a medical center to provide students with vaccines, mental health care and other services. During a four-hour meeting, the suit claims, the board voted to strike down the clinic in January 2023. The motivation behind halting the project was political, Brush's suit claims, out of concerns for parental rights.
In July 2021, a conservative group called FEC United, which espouses parental rights and opposes sex education in schools, held an event at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, promoted as "Michigan Conservatives-Take Back Michigan-2024," according to the lawsuit. Board member Lisa Papas was involved in organizing the event, the suit claims. Brush attended as a private citizen, paying $10, and sat next to two acquaintances, both LGBTQ+ advocates. Brush claims another organizer asked her to confirm her identity and asked her to leave the event. Brush refused, and asked why she was being told to leave. “Because you are an Antifa journalist, and we know why you are here," the suit claims the man told her.
In another instance described in the suit, Papas is described as saying in a podcast that she has watched children "decide" to be gay or bisexual.
Suit: Termination was board-driven
In evaluations, Brush said she always received a highly effective rating, and was assured her work was valued by school district administrators. In February 2023, the district needed to cut $4 million in expenses. According to the lawsuit, administrators submitted proposed cuts that would fulfill the $4 million, but members Papas, Cotton, Jeup and Ismail wanted deeper cuts.
Valarie St. John, a board member speaking in an interview with the Free Press as an individual and not as a representative of the board, said she supported working with the administration on cuts rather than those proposed by Cotton and others.
"I think we should work in collaboration with the administration instead of actively against them," she said. The lawsuit, she added, comes at an "unfortunate time" as the district continues to grapple with declining revenue.
Cotton proposed additional cuts, including eliminating Brush's position, which the suit claims was a targeted cut based on her previous job at the Grosse Pointe News and reputation in the community for politically progressive ideals. Furthermore, the suit alleges the proposal to remove additional positions did not follow district policy or past practices.
"The board created policy, it was not their province to manage the operations of the school district," Michael Pitt, Brush's attorney, said. "Guardrails were set up and observed for decades. In this particular case, though, the guardrails were torn down by the anti-progressives and the majority of board members."
Brush's complaint alleges the district and its school board violated the Constitution by terminating her for her political beliefs.
The suit reads, "Cotton, Jeup and Papas, who were at all times acting under color of law, targeted Brush for job elimination because they perceived her to be a political 'enemy' who was politically aligned and closely associated with the progressive voices on the Board (St. John, Colleen Worden and David Brumbaugh) and in the community (LQBTQ+ advocate Shannon Byrne) and a strong supporter of DEI principles."
The suit is seeking damages to compensate for the lost job.
Contact Lily Altavena: laltavena@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lawsuit: Grosse Pointe schools employee fired over political beliefs
