ACLU: Central Bucks Lawyers Misled, Lied to Retaliate Against Teacher

DOYLESTOWN, PA — In a new filing in federal court, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania is accusing the Central Bucks School District administration and their specially retained lawyers of misleading the public and lying about facts in a report released last spring.

The filing amends a lawsuit filed in April against the district by teacher Andrew Burgess, who contends that the district retaliated against him for advocating for a transgender student who he said endured harassment and bullying at school.

In the new filing, the ACLU and Burgess say that Burgess was suspended for violating a board policy that did not exist at the time and that the district’s attorneys handling the investigation never spoke with the involved student or his family, who could have corroborated Burgess’s account of the matter.

To defend itself against the original complaint levied by the ACLU-PA, the school district spent nearly $1 million to investigate and to respond to the allegations. That investigation conducted by Duane Morris and released last April to the public found that the school district "did not engage in impermissible retaliation against Mr. Burgess. Rather, that his suspension was justified.

"Further, based on additional facts obtained through this investigation — including a dossier he created regarding Student 1 and that he similarly manipulated a second student and failed to report other allegations of bullying and harassment—we recommend that the School District suspend Mr. Burgess without pay.

"By his conduct, Mr. Burgess has demonstrated that he currently should not be entrusted with the care or education of children," said the investigators. "We also find troubling the participation of OCR employees in Mr. Burgess’s conduct. Upon learning of allegations of abuse that had not been reported to the School District administration, OCR should have immediately contacted the School District administration with the information contained in the dossier."

The investigation also found that:

- The administration of Lenape Middle School acted appropriately in denying students who had participated in May 2022 walk-outs the ability to come and go through any building door they chose. Lenape Middle School employs a modern building entry system, complete with electronic locks and an intercom system. Such security measures are an unfortunate consequence of school shootings and other violence around the country. Particularly at a time of tension, including when the school’s principal is being subjected to death threats, the Lenape administration acted appropriately in maintaining well-established school safety protocols, none of which constitutes
illegal discrimination or retaliation as alleged by the ACLU in its complaint.
- Not unlike most (or all) school districts, some bullying occurs in the Central Bucks School District. "We found, however, that such incidents are not widespread and that they were promptly addressed by school district personnel. Moreover, very little of any alleged bullying targets LGBTQ students, a fact confirmed by all of the data we collected and interviews we conducted, including the interview under oath of Mr. Burgess. The School District has well-designed and well-implemented formal and informal processes to address alleged bullying, all of which is in compliance with Pennsylvania and federal law."
- None of the policies adopted by the School District referenced in the September 23, 2022, OCR complaint letter is, on its face or in actual operation, discriminatory against LGBTQ students or employees. "Rather, these are reasonable policy choices, made by the Superintendent and the
Board of School Directors, who are empowered by state law to make such decisions, and supported by well-established legal precedents."

Read the results of the school district's internal investigation here.

The ACLU and Burgess said in its federal district court filing that the school district’s attorneys "lied" about the district not knowing about the complaint filed by Burgess on behalf of the student with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights until the attorneys conducted their
investigation. A district administrator’s meeting notes from April 2022 reference a “form” from the Office for Civil Rights, and the ACLU’s own complaint filed with the office in October 2022 on behalf of seven students references a complaint filed by a teacher.

The new filing also alleges that the district falsely suggested that Burgess did not get the student’s parents’ permission to file the complaint, when, in fact, the complaint included a consent form signed by the student’s mother.

“Time and time again, the district’s attorneys and administrators went out of their way to sully the reputation of an upstanding, wonderful teacher,” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “They even went so far as to put on a show trial for the community in April, further damaging Andrew’s professional credibility. What they’ve done here is illegal retaliation. They were warned by the Office for Civil Rights not to retaliate against Andrew or anyone else who filed complaints, and they did it anyway, at the cost of over a million dollars to district taxpayers.”

In its report, the ACLU says the school district’s attorneys suggested that Burgess failed to report child abuse, in violation of state law, but the amended complaint notes that the reported behavior did not meet the statutory definition of child abuse, and, if it did, the district had an independent obligation to report it, too, which they didn’t. The filing also notes that the administration knew about the harassment of the student because he had previously reported it to school officials and they did not improve the student’s situation.

“Accusing a teacher of failing to report abuse is a serious matter, and doing so in a specially scheduled, live-streamed, and highly public way is traumatic and damaging for everyone involved, especially Andrew,” Walczak said. “The district’s attorneys played fast and loose with the law and the facts in order to build a sympathetic public narrative for their client. The district got what they paid for - a one-sided investigation that was never intended to take seriously the allegations of a hostile environment for LGBTQ students at Central Bucks. They wanted to
scapegoat Andrew to distract from their egregious failure to support LGBTQ+ students in the district.”

Burgess has been suspended with pay twice by the district, first in May 2022 before being
reassigned to a different school in the district and again in April 2023 after the release of the district’s internal investigation. He is still suspended with no indication if or when that will be lifted.

The complaint accuses the district of violating Burgess’s rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and the Pennsylvania Constitution.

Burgess has asked the court to order that he be reinstated to his previous teaching position at Lenape Middle School and that all references to discipline against him be removed from his personnel file. The lawsuit also asks the court to order the district and Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh to pay compensatory and punitive damages to Burgess.

More information about this case, including the latest filing, is available at aclupa.org/Burgess.