Principal told to resign after she accused administrator of racism, GA lawsuit says

A former principal in Georgia says her school district retaliated against her after she reported an associate superintendent who she said made racist comments, according to a lawsuit.

The lawsuit says Timothy Corrigan, a former associate superintendent in the Fulton County School District, opened an investigation into the principal’s attendance record after accused him of making racist jokes. He then made “false and misleading claims” about her attendance record, which led to the district’s decision to terminate her employment, according to the lawsuit.

Bridgette Marques, who served as principal of State Bridge Crossing Elementary in Johns Creek, was given the option to resign from her position in September 2021 and resigned effective Dec. 31, 2021, the lawsuit says. Johns Creek is about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta.

In June 2022, Marques filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that said Corrigan made “offensive remarks” during meetings , including jokes about visiting an Asian massage parlor shortly after a series of highly publicized police raids at parlors suspected of prostitution activity, the lawsuit says. He also tried to imitate “speech and dialect patterns of Asians” and referred to members of the LGBTQ community as “girly men,” the lawsuit says.

The school district declined to comment on the pending litigation. A person who answered the phone at the superintendent’s office said Corrigan was no longer employed with the district.

Corrigan is listed as a head of high school with King’s Ridge Christian School in Alpharetta. He declined to comment.

Marques, who was the only Black person to hold a senior administrative position at State Bridge Crossing School, said that in 2019, Corrigan told her the school might not be the “best fit” for her and said he had received a complaint about her signed by multiple teachers who said she created a hostile work environment, the lawsuit says.

A talent review team looked into the complaint and found the evidence was “inconclusive,” and Marques had not violated any district policies, the lawsuit says.

When Corrigan initiated an investigation into Marques’s attendance record in 2021, Corrigan gave “inaccurate or misleading” information about her arrival and departure times Aug. 6, 2021, the lawsuit says. On that morning, he and Marques had been texting about a person who was at the school the previous day and tested positive for COVID-19. The school was going through its contract tracing protocols, and Marques was waiting to see if she was cleared to go in, according to the lawsuit.

She noticed an email from the school nurse in her inbox that had been sent on the evening of Aug. 5, 2021, clearing her to go to work, and she told Corrigan at about 8:45 a.m. Aug. 6, 2021, that she was going in, the lawsuit says. During the investigation, though, Corrigan told investigators that Marques “misrepresented her arrival time” that day and told him she’d arrived at 6:20 a.m., the lawsuit says.

He also told investigators that she did not work eight hours on many days over the summer, the lawsuit says. But a previous email he sent to district principals about summer scheduling does not say principals had to be on school grounds for full eight-hour days during the summer, according to the lawsuit

Marques is seeking back pay, front pay and loss of benefits, including health insurance, accrued sick leave and accumulated retirement contributions, the lawsuit says. The amount she is seeking is not included in the lawsuit.

This story was originally published January 24, 2023 at 3:02 PM with the headline "Principal told to resign after she accused administrator of racism, GA lawsuit says."