Hazlet Teacher: I Was Fired For Reporting Gender Bathroom Tweet

HAZLET, NJ — A former teacher at Raritan High School in Hazlet has now sued the Hazlet school district, saying that she was fired after she complained that a school-associated Twitter account liked a post criticizing gender-neutral bathrooms.

However, the Hazlet superintendent said she was not fired; her contract was not renewed. And it nothing to do with the tweet, he says.

That teacher is Darci Santella, who lives in Oceanport. She worked as a computer science and math teacher at Raritan High School; she is also openly homosexual, according to her lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by Patch.

On January 7 of this year, Santella said she was on Twitter when she noticed a Twitter account called @RHS_GuidanceDpt liked a tweet that criticized gender-neutral bathrooms. The original tweet is below, and it was put out by Kaya Jones, a Grammy-winning Christian singer. Jones, who used to sing with the Pussycat Dolls, is also a conservative activist and advisory board member of Women for Trump, as a self-described Native American ambassador.

The tweet shows a gender-neutral bathroom door sign and asks "How would you feel about your child using this bathroom?"

In her lawsuit, Santella said the tweet was "obviously mocking, discouraging or discriminating against students who wish to or need to use a gender-neutral bathroom." Santella also said the high school guidance department liking such a tweet was discriminatory and bullying.

At the time this happened, Santella was in the process of establishing gender-neutral bathrooms at Raritan High School. She was involved with the school's Gay-Straight Alliance.

She said she immediately reported the liking of the tweet to her supervisor. In response, she said she was swiftly terminated from her job. Santella said she was fired so quickly that the school district even failed to give her her RICE notice, which a public employee is required to be given whenever their job status is up for discussion.

Santella said that before the incident she had always received above-average performance reviews and had never received any discipline during her teaching career at Raritan High School.

In her suit, Santella's lawyers said that the Hazlet school district "unlawfully discriminated against her by terminating her employment due to her own sexual orientation and actual gender identities because she supported similar rights of other faculty and students."

Dr. Scott Ridley, the superintendent of the Hazlet school district, said: "While we are not able to discuss active litigation, I can unequivocally state that Hazlet respects the lifestyle choices of all staff members and those choices would absolutely not be a factor in any employment decisions."

Also, Santella was not fired. Her teaching contract was not renewed, he said.

Santella is seeking punitive damages, and she would also like to return to her job. She is represented by Eric Lubin and Richard Lomurro, attorneys at Lomurro law firm based in Freehold.

According to her teacher profile, Santella taught AP computer science, Algebra 1 and Intro. to advanced coding. The Asbury Park Press reported she worked as a teacher for 12 years and made a salary of $69,025 in 2017.