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The plaintiff, Taylor Parlier, alleges in the lawsuit the school fired her in retaliation after she raised safety concerns regarding another custodian’s behavior. Her complaint came weeks before police arrested a man for a school shooting threat toward the same school.

Parlier, who is representing herself in court, filed the lawsuit in June in Burke County. Defendants in the suit are listed as the county board of education and six individual officials, including Superintendent Mike Swan and Leanna McKinney, the principal of Drexel Elementary.

According to the lawsuit, Parlier raised concerns regarding workplace safety, access issues and workload distribution in a formal complaint filed in March. She told Carolina Public Press that one of the items she notified the district about was another custodian, who is unnamed in the court documents, who allowed unauthorized individuals to enter the school after school hours on several occasions. She informally complained to her manager several times prior to March, she said.

A spokesperson for Burke County Public Schools said the district denies any wrongdoing and will defend any lawsuit vigorously. Carolina Public Press also reached out to the individual defendants in the lawsuit for comment, but they did not respond prior to publication of this article.

Police arrested Brandon Dean Johnson on March 24 for a school shooting threat toward Drexel Elementary. Reports said Drexel Police discovered he had floor plans of the school, “a manifesto” and several firearms.

Prior to Johnson’s arrest, Parlier had requested to be transferred to a different Burke County school due to her disagreements with the other custodian and general safety concerns at Drexel. She reiterated her desire to be transferred after the March 24 arrest of Johnson.

The lawsuit alleges Parlier experienced destabilizing changes to her schedule, duties and work assignment after requesting a transfer.

In early May, county officials presented some potential options for relocation sites, she said. But on May 12, Director of Human Resources Keith Recker, who is also named as a defendant in the suit, terminated Parlier from her job as a custodian. The lawsuit alleges Parlier was “directed to surrender district property without advance notice or due process,” and that law enforcement was present.

“The involvement of law enforcement appeared to rely on incomplete or inaccurate information and occurred without neutral oversight,” the lawsuit says.

Parlier told CPP that she thinks the district fired her because of the documentation she collected throughout her time as a custodian, which she says would make the district look bad, especially given how upset the community was after the shooting threat.

“It would have made the whole district look bad because of what no one seemed to notice except for me I guess, and why a custodian would notice everything that’s wrong and be the only one to raise these problems I imagine is probably embarrassing,” she said.

“I know that they noticed the problems. They saw the problems. I just don’t think they thought it was detrimental enough to address anything because that requires more work and more time and more effort, and I think they just wanted to leave well enough alone.”

Social media posts from the time period show that the school district faced criticism for its handling of the threat, specifically because it did not enter a lockdown while the police were searching Johnson’s home prior to his arrest.

“I was able to present the fact that I had made a complaint on March 13 about security issues and unauthorized access,” Parlier said. “Two weeks later, this guy makes this threat and they don’t really handle it properly. Already, it looks really bad.”

In addition to the lawsuit’s allegation BCPS participated in retaliation against the custodian, it also claims a violation of grievance rights and BCPS board policies and denial of procedural due process.

The lawsuit alleges Parlier suffered loss of income, health insurance and job stability, which led to the disruption to medical care and out-of-pocket health expenses and aggravation of physical and mental health conditions, in addition to “public embarrassment, reputational damage and emotional trauma” as a result of being terminated.

The lawsuit requests back pay and front pay in lieu of Parlier being reinstated as a custodian, along with benefits lost and compensatory damages for emotional distress, medical harm, reputational damage and economic loss. Defendants have until Aug. 8 to respond in court.

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