Fired Bluffton teacher’s lawsuit against school board, parents moved to federal court
A former Beaufort County band director’s defamation lawsuit against parents, her principal and the school board will be heard in U.S. District Court, new documents show.
Shelby Ledbetter worked as the band director at May River High School and was fired by the school board in November 2019 following a recommendation from Superintendent Frank Rodriguez and Principal Todd Bornscheuer.
In November 2021, she filed a lawsuit against 15 band parents and several Beaufort County School District officials, claiming that several of the defendants conspired to have her fired and that she wasn’t given due process in the firing process.
She also claimed that band parents falsely accused her of bullying students, directed their children to boycott practice, and refused to raise money for the band.
In January, Ledbetter filed an amended complaint claiming that her rights under the U.S. Constitution had been violated; on Wednesday, the case was moved from state court to U.S. District Court.
Ledbetter is asking for a jury to find the defendants guilty of abuse of process, breach of contract, civil conspiracy, interference with a contractual relationship, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision, violation of unfair trade practices, and violation of Section 22 of the South Carolina Constitution.
She’s also asking to be awarded damages and injunctive relief to keep defendants from defaming her further and “continuing their unfair trade practices.”
What’s happened so far
Ledbetter was fired on Nov. 5, 2019, after Alice Walton, Beaufort County School District’s director of human resources, wrote in a letter that there were “concerns with (Ledbetter’s) professionalism and a general toxic culture within the band program.”
Walton added that a student had been treated for “heat-related injuries” by EMS and taken to the emergency room because Ledbetter had “failed to follow state guidelines for hydration in practice.” Ledbetter has disputed that in multiple lawsuits, saying the student had an anxiety attack.
A few weeks prior to her firing, Ledbetter was arrested for a since-dropped DUI charge, which made news around the time of her firing but wasn’t mentioned in Walton’s letter. In July, Ledbetter filed a lawsuit against the Town of Bluffton over that charge; the suit is still pending.
In December 2019 following her exoneration for the DUI charge, Ledbetter appealed her firing, claiming that the board’s vote was made without due process and “based upon false, misleading and incomplete facts.” According to the Beaufort County 14th Judicial Circuit Public Index, that appeal is still open, with the last action taken in February 2021.
In her November 2021 lawsuit, which named 15 band parents, Rodriguez, Walton, Bornscheuer, the Beaufort County School District, the school board and eight individual board members as defendants, she claimed that band booster board parents were upset when she was hired over another candidate.
Ledbetter claims that the president of the band booster board sent a letter to Superintendent Rodriguez “falsely accusing Ms. Ledbetter of bullying students, using racial offensive language, discrimination in violation of Title IX, dereliction of student safety, misappropriating education time, and risking student’s security.”
According to Walton’s letter, parents sent 34 emails to Principal Bornscheuer about Ledbetter. The school held 11 face-to-face conferences and 15 phone calls to discuss the band; participation in the band went from 79 students at the beginning of the school year to 64 by an Oct. 19 competition. Ledbetter debated those numbers in the suit, saying many of the parent discussions were not related to her performance and that several students still in the band couldn’t attend the competition.
Parents also took to social media to protest Ledbetter, with the vice president of the band booster board calling her an “adult bully” on Facebook. Several parents commented on the Island Packet’s coverage of Ledbetter’s DUI arrest, “implying she did not care about the students and that she (had) a drinking problem,” according to the the lawsuit.
Ledbetter also claims that one parent yelled at her for 25 minutes after a football game, saying that he “would have her (expletive) job” and that he was “going to leave before I do something I really regret.” Ledbetter had told his daughter and other members of the color guard to do push-ups as punishment for laughing and talking during a band tribute to a deceased student.
According to the lawsuit, Ledbetter couldn’t find a teaching job in South Carolina because of her firing and her teaching certificate had expired.