Central Bucks teacher, his lawyers ordered not to talk about $1M internal investigation

The Central Bucks School District has reportedly ordered a middle-school teacher who is suing the district for retaliation and his attorneys not to comment about the district’s $1 million investigation into ACLU claims of anti-LGBTQ student discrimination that largely blamed him for continued community divisions.

The allegation is contained in an ACLU of Pennsylvania letter to Central Bucks solicitor Jeffrey Garton that also states the district took action Friday “affecting the terms and condition of the employment” of teacher Andrew Burgess, but it provided no specifics.

In an email on Monday, ACLU Legal Director Witold Walczak, who represents Burgess, said he could not comment citing the letter the district issued his client.``

The ACLU letter was sent Sunday to Garton and it gave the district a deadline of 10 a.m. Monday to “withdraw or clarify the vague and overbroad purported gag order.” The district had not responded as of Monday afternoon.

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Garton did not respond immediately to an email asking about the ACLU allegations that the district has ordered Burgess and his lawyers not to speak about the Duane Morris presentation and report.

Neither Garton or district spokeswoman Angela Linch responded immediately to an email Monday asking about Burgess’ employment status.

Burgess, a social studies teacher and teacher union vice president, was suspended with pay for three months last year for allegedly failing to report bullying allegations to administrators and using his union position to interfere between teachers and the school principal over district efforts to review the appropriateness of “certain” books in classroom libraries, according to the district.

His suspension last May resulted in four days of student protests at Lenape Middle School where Burgess worked. Burgess and his supporters believe the suspension was related to his filing a discrimination complaint with Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights on behalf of a transgender student who alleged unaddressed bullying.

In his lawsuit filed earlier this month, Burgess alleges the district has retaliated against him including an involuntary transfer to Unami Middle School a week before the start of the school year where he was assigned a new grade and a larger class size than other teachers.

The ACLU letter stated the “gag order” for Burgess and his attorneys was issued Friday, the day after a board meeting where attorneys for Duane Morris released their findings on its investigation into ACLU allegations of LGBTQ discrimination, according to the letter.

Among the internal investigation recommendations was to suspend Burgess without pay for failing to report bullying allegations against LGBTQ students to the administration, a violation of district policy.

Duane Morris alleged in its report that evidence showed Burgess failed to report bullying allegations as part of a conspiracy to derail a newly elected Republican-majority school board because he disagreed with its actions.

The school board majority has been embroiled in controversy over the last 18 months over allegations its actions and policy decisions discriminate against the LGBTQ+ student community and its allies.

The board has repeatedly denied the anti-LGBTQ and blamed the discord in the community on misinformation spread by community “activists.”

In an email Monday, Walczak said Garton told him he was unaware of a letter restricting what Burgess and his attorneys can say about the investigation.  Garton did not attend the Thursday board meeting where the Duane Morris report was presented.

The district gave Burgess a letter on Friday “in conjunction with” the employment action taken against him that includes language that Walczak described in the letter to Garton as “trying to gag and intimidate Mr. Burgess and his lawyers, from speaking publicly about the district’s actions.”

The district's letter to Burgess also allegedly contains a paragraph that states:

“You  must keep everything (including but not limited to the allegations, and all details thereof, the facts relating to this matter, the people involved, this process, the results of this process, witness names) fully confidential and you must not disclose any confidential information unless you have a legal or constitutional right to make the disclosure and only to the limits that the disclosure is protected by law.

“For example, you have the right to discuss this with your attorney, but he or she must keep this confidential to the same extent that you have the duty to keep this confidential. 

“Another example you do have a legal right to discuss this with your union. If you or your attorney believe it is necessary to contact anyone to assist you in your defense of the allegations against you, you are directed to work through our attorney to arrange a reasonable plan to maintain the confidential nature of this process.”

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The letter warned Burgess that if he didn’t comply with the directives, or violate any work rule or requirement he could be subject to discipline including “discharge.”

Burgess has a ‘legal or constitutional right’  to publicly disclose the actions the district has taken against him, including its April 21 letter, and to disclose information related to the allegations leveled at him during the April 20, 2023 school Board meeting and the report made public at that meeting," Walczak said in the letter.

The district has “no legal basis to gag” Mr. Burgess from exercising his  rights to respond both in and out of court to the district’s “scurrilous assault on him” at board meeting, the publicly released report and “Friday’s action affecting his employment status.”

The letter called the Duane Morris probe, estimated to cost $1 million, as a  “supposed “‘investigation’” and “result-oriented political theater not a search for truth.”

Walczak pointed out that the information presented was “cherry picked and provided without context,” and ignored “key witnesses” including students who identify as LGBTQ or their families.

“The District then chose to make their presentation by surprise, through a one-sided affair with no opportunity for rebuttal by those with first-hand knowledge of the actual events at issue,” Walczak said. “The disclosure of information counter to the district’s chosen narrative may be inconvenient for the district, but that does not make it any less a matter of public concern.  In fact, quite the opposite.”

The letter to Garton also pointed out that the “purported gag order” against Burgess and his lawyers is the latest in a series of retaliatory actions it has taken against him, and an “unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech.”

The letter also alleged the district has refused to provide Burgess and his attorneys with a copy of the transcript of his “interview” with Duane Morris attorneys.  Parts of the interview are included among the 105 exhibits related to the Duane Morris report, though an estimated 138 pages are missing.

The letter states the ACLU and CBSD teachers’ union have requested the transcript from Garton and two unnamed “outside law firms.”

“The transcript is an electronic PDF capable of being transmitted to us by the push of a button. In your capacity as the solicitor, we ask, again, that you provide the document to us immediately,” Walczak said.

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Central Bucks, ACLU at odds over district ordering teacher silent of investigation