Judge sides with FCPS in discrimination case filed by former Frederick High basketball coach

Jan. 13—A U.S. District Court judge sided with Frederick County Public Schools on all counts in a wrongful termination and racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a former basketball coach who had alleged she was fired for speaking out against prejudicial treatment.

Ashley Bush, who led the Frederick High School girls basketball team to three consecutive state championships between 2017 and 2019, filed suit against FCPS in May 2021. She sought $500,000 in damages from a school system that she alleges in court documents was "strategically focused on ousting" her.

The district, meanwhile, denied liability on all counts and argued in court filings that Bush's allegations were "baseless." In May, the district filed a motion for summary judgment against Bush.

On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Julie Rubin granted that motion.

The ruling means Bush's case will not go to a jury trial, as she had requested. As of Thursday, the case was marked closed in an online court database.

"We participated fully and respected the process," FCPS spokesperson Eric Louérs-Phillips said Friday. "The board has received the decision and is pleased with the outcome."

Lawyers for Bush and the district could not be reached for comment Friday.

A former Frederick basketball star herself, Bush was named head coach of the Cadets in May 2015. She led the team to 120 total wins. Their three-peat state championship was something no squad in the county had pulled off before.

Bush was fired in February 2020. Her lawsuit, which included nine counts, alleged that the termination was "directly related to [her] pushback of prejudicial policies that disparately impact African Americans."

In her 25-page memorandum opinion issued Thursday, Rubin wrote that Bush's complaint was filed after the statute of limitation for most of her claims had expired.

But even if the complaints had been timely, Rubin wrote, Bush failed to make a case strong enough to warrant a jury trial.

Bush's original complaint from May 2021 accused FCPS of fostering an environment in which racism against her and her players — most of whom were Black — was left unchecked.

She laid out a timeline spanning more than two years, beginning with a Frederick vs. Linganore game in 2018 that caused community turmoil at the time.

At the game, Bush alleged, "spectators, parents of students, and coaching staff of Linganore High School began chanting obscene and racial comments" toward Bush's players. Bush sought assistance from the on-duty resource officer, according to the complaint, but Bush said she "was told that nothing could be done."

Bush argued that this incident was the beginning of a decline in her relationship with her employer. She described multiple meetings in which FCPS officials allegedly reprimanded her for her conduct at the game.

Over the next year or so, Bush alleged in her complaint, that dynamic continued, with Bush being "the only Coach facing this type of scrutiny, pressure, threats."

Bush aimed to show that FCPS had a pattern of downplaying racism against Frederick players and focusing instead on penalizing Bush for her attempts to protect them, her lawyer told the News-Post in an interview last year.

FCPS, meanwhile, said Bush was terminated due to a recording supposedly captured during a team meeting in which they say she can be heard saying "f--- white people."

The district obtained the recording after it was posted to Facebook, its lawyers said.

"How can I use sports to make you guys so damn strong that we can get to the point of — and I apologize for saying it, but — f--- white people," an adult woman says in the recording, which was obtained by The Frederick News-Post. "That's where I'm at. Especially with how society is. And so I think, sometimes, I go overboard."

Bush maintains the district doesn't have proof it was her voice on the recording.

Rubin cited Bush's denial as her reason for dismissing the fifth count in Bush's case, which alleged FCPS had violated Maryland's wiretap statute in using the recording — which Bush says was captured illegally — as a reason to terminate her.

Since Bush denies it was her voice on the recording, she doesn't have the right to pursue this claim, Rubin wrote.

Rubin ultimately dismissed the other eight counts on the lawsuit, too, which included retaliation and defamation in addition to discrimination.

In June, Bush's team filed a 50-page opposition to FCPS' motion for summary judgment.

But at a hearing about a month later, Rubin struck that opposition from the court record in what she said was an "extraordinary" move.

FCPS asked Rubin to do just that, in part because the opposition had been filed late and in part because the district argued that Bush's lawyer, Dionna Lewis, violated court rules in the way she drafted it.

The district also said Lewis had shown "a blatant disregard for the Federal Rules, common decorum in discovery, and, frankly, this Court" throughout the proceedings.

Rubin sided with FCPS at a June 29 hearing, telling Lewis she was "gobsmacked" by the way Bush's case had been handled, according to a transcript from that day.

"I have to tell you, I find that that is appalling," Rubin said to Lewis at one point. "It's just appalling."

Rubin's striking of Bush's motion meant that the arguments FCPS laid out in its motion for summary judgment were considered to be undisputed.

Follow Jillian Atelsek on Twitter: @jillian_atelsek