A jury trial for a lawsuit against the Jefferson City School District has been scheduled for Sept. 8-18.
In April 2017, former technology coordinator Tammy Ferry filed a lawsuit suing JC Schools Superintendent Larry Linthacum and Director of Technology Joe Martin, her former supervisor, alleging retaliation, sex discrimination and a hostile work environment.
Ferry was fired in July 2019 after a hearing over allegations she put student information at risk when she transferred files to her personal Google account.
In August 2019, Ferry appealed the school board's decision to fire her. The appeal argued there was no evidence Ferry had disclosed any confidential student data to anyone or that she had willfully or persistently violated school board policy.
A trial in the 2017 lawsuit was previously scheduled for this past November but was delayed so Ferry's attorney, Dennis Egan, could file new claims after she was fired.
"This raises new claims of retaliation, wrongful discharge for retaliation, defamation and the like," Egan told the News Tribune at the time. "We need to file those, and we wouldn't be able to make it before trial."
Egan filed an amended petition Nov. 14 for damages on behalf of Ferry, adding claims that a new act of retaliation occurred when the district suspended her in February 2019 and fired her in July 2019.
The letter to Ferry suspending her employment, signed by JC Schools Human Resources Director Shelby Scarbrough and dated Feb. 1, 2019, states Ferry may have been involved in a serious violation of policy and "the alleged violation includes a data breach of personally identifiable student information."
Egan claims this allegation was false and defamatory, and Ferry "simply had transferred computer files - rightly in her possession as part of her job - to her private computer, at the advice of her attorney" to ensure her work record wouldn't be tampered with and that she could have them available for the upcoming trial in her employment discrimination lawsuit. The district denied Egan's claims.
Egan alleges Ferry sought no one's permission for transferring her work files because it is common practice and the entire technology department often helped outgoing staff take their work files with them. He claims the original data remained untouched, and no one except Ferry saw the files. The district denied these claims.
Egan claims the district retaliated against Ferry and created a hostile work environment, arguing the district unlawfully fired Ferry in July 2019, violating Missouri Human Rights Act policies. He claims it was done "intentionally, maliciously, and with willful indifference" to Ferry's rights, and Ferry is entitled to damages and losses in the form of lost compensation and benefits and "career disruption, pain and suffering, mental anguish, anxiety and emotional distress." The district denied these claims.
Egan also claims the district publicly defamed Ferry by sending a media release to local news outlets falsely labeling her a "rogue employee" who had "published sensitive, confidential, personally identifiable student information." The district denied these claims.
Ferry demanded a trial by jury on all these issues.
In a December 2019 hearing, JC Schools' attorney, Chris Rackers, argued by transferring 7,369 instances of data to her Google account, Ferry did not keep confidential information secure.
Ferry's attorney, David Moen, argued under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act that since Ferry managed the documents while working for the district, the transfer allowed her the same access to information and was password-protected.
Cole County Judge Jon Beetem ruled March 3 that the district had illegally fired Ferry, saying there was no evidence a disclosure was made to a third party. He ordered the district to restore Ferry's employment, pay her back pay from between her discharge and reinstatement, and pay attorney's fees.
JC Schools filed its notice of appeal on the judge's ruling March 10.