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Saturday, November 2, 2024

Former Cypress custodian, military veteran settles suit involving yard signs opposing kneeling during National Anthem

Lawsuits
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U.S. District Judge David Dugan granted dismissal in a military veteran and former Cypress Elementary School custodian’s wrongful termination lawsuit involving the school district’s policy allowing athletes to kneel during the National Anthem. 

Plaintiff James Baker filed a motion for voluntary dismissal with prejudice on June 20 through attorney D. Wes Sullenger of Sullenger Law Office PLLC in Paducah, Ky. Baker’s motion states that the case has been settled, and the parties agreed to bear their own costs. 

Dugan granted Baker’s motion for dismissal following a settlement agreement on June 21. 

Baker filed his lawsuit on July 16, 2021, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against Cypress Illinois School District #64. 

The school district responded by filing a motion to dismiss on Aug. 16, 2021, through attorneys with Guin Mundorf LLC in Collinsville. The defendant argued that the complaint “merely contains boilerplate allegations.”

Dugan granted the motion to dismiss on Feb. 11. 

Baker filed an amended complaint on March 14 against Cypress Elementary School District # 64 and Superintendent Kimberly Shoemaker. 

According to the amended complaint, he worked as a custodian/maintenance employee at Cypress Elementary School for seven years, including working as head custodian for four years, until he was terminated on June 30, 2021. 

While employed at the school in 2019, there was a rise in professional athletes kneeling during the National Anthem before games as a controversial form of social protest, the suit states. As the protests spread to lower-level athletes, Shoemaker implemented a policy allowing athletes from visiting schools to refrain from standing for the National Anthem when competing on Cypress School District property.

Baker, who is a military veteran, claims he “sees kneeling during the National Anthem as disrespectful to the flag and the nation.” Baker lives across the street from Cypress Elementary School and placed a series of signs along the road on his personal property that read, “If you don’t believe in standing for the National Anthem, you can turn around and go home.” The suit states that every bus drives past his yard when traveling to and from the school, meaning all athletes would see the signs in his yard. 

“Mr. Baker placed the signs in his yard because he wanted to express his opinion on a matter of public concern in a manner in which it would come to the attention of the public,” the suit states.

Shoemaker allegedly told Baker that the signs offended her. Baker responded that they expressed his opinion, and he refused to remove them. Following the conversation, Baker claims the mayor of Cypress told him that Shoemaker called and asked that he remove the signs from the plaintiff’s yard. The mayor said he could not remove the signs, the suit states. 

In response, Baker claims Shoemaker began giving him a hard time by nitpicking at his work in hopes of forcing him to quit or to engage in terminable misbehavior. 

Baker claims Shoemaker directed staff at a meeting to interact with the students. However, she then accused him of “stealing time” by interacting with the kids while performing his job, the suit states. Specifically, he alleges she falsely accused him of spending several minutes per day visiting with his grandkids, “though he did not interact with his grandkids any more than he did with any other children, if at all.”

Baker claims Shoemaker also accused him of taking unauthorized breaks and demanded that he change his work hours. Then she allegedly complained about him working the extra hours. 

Baker also alleges Shoemaker falsely represented that the school district was paying Baker $2,000 less than his agreed annual salary in order to pay the difference to the state retirement fund, but then failed to put the money in the fund. 

“When Mr. Baker failed to quit his job after Superintendent Shoemaker’s pressure campaign against him, on or about March 16, 2021, Superintendent Shoemaker asked the local school board to terminate Mr. Baker’s employment by not renewing his annual employment contract based on her false claims of misconduct,” the suit states. 

The school board allegedly voted not to renew Baker’s employment contract without providing him an opportunity to respond. 

Baker claims Shoemaker admitted after the meeting that she sought his termination because of the signs in his yard, “demonstrating that the moving force behind her recommendation had been his protected speech in violation of defendant Shoemaker’s policy prohibiting employees from speaking on matters of public concern in ways that disagree with her opinions.” 

As a result, Baker claims he suffered lost wages as well as emotional distress, emotional pain, inconvenience, mental anguish, and other non-pecuniary losses. 

The defendants answered the amended complaint on April 1, arguing that Baker cannot prove that his First Amendment rights were violated or that his protected speech was a motivating factor for his termination. They also argue that Baker’s employment was not renewed due to performance issues. 

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:21-cv-821

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