Former principal sues officials, parents

Jeff Benson

A former Newport Heights Elementary School principal has filed a

$3-million lawsuit against three district administrators and three

parents.

Judith Chambers is disputing her public dismissal nearly a year

ago in connection with the reassignment of a popular first-grade

teacher at the school. The lawsuit cites breach of contract,

violation of due process, defamation and intentional infliction of

emotional distress.

Chambers already filed a suit with similar claims against the

district that was struck down Oct. 25 in Orange County Superior

Court. This new lawsuit is for more money and against individuals

rather than the district as a whole, said Steve Montanez, the school

district’s attorney.

The district announced in February that it had placed Chambers on

administrative leave so she could work on her doctorate, but Chambers

claims she was wrongfully terminated four months later, after nearly

100 parents and several district officials criticized her for the

departure of substitute teacher Shannon Jay.

Chambers, a Newport Beach resident, was reappointed to a

sixth-grade teaching job at Davis Elementary in Costa Mesa after

several attempts to meet with district officials, said her attorney,

Margot Nelson.

Supt. Robert Barbot, Assistant Supt. of Secondary Education Susan

Astaritas and Assistant Supt. of Human Resources Lori McCune are

charged in the lawsuit with violating Chambers’ due process rights,

the lawsuit states.

The suit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, contends parents

wrongly blamed Chambers rather than the district for not hiring Jay

for a vacant first-grade teacher position at Newport Heights.

After meeting with a group of parents who demanded Jay’s return,

the district rehired the teacher, according to the suit.

Chambers, who still works at Davis, is suing the district for lost

wages and benefits, damage to her reputation, breach of covenant of

good faith and fair dealing, defamation, intentional infliction of

emotional distress, retaliation and violating state and federal due

process.

Nelson said the district also breached its contract with Chambers

by not allowing her the opportunity to respond to claims made against

her and by “establishing public forums to encourage Chambers to be

publicly defamed.”

“The district has breached her contract and violated her rights,”

Nelson said. “They failed to follow their own procedure ... The

district terminated her. However, we correctly argued that the

district didn’t have the right to terminate her but could only

reclassify her as a teacher.”

Chambers is also suing parents Kim Miller, Robert Shaw and Julie

Scharnell for defaming her in public meetings. Scharnell resigned

from her post as Newport Heights PTA president at the board’s Feb. 4

meeting, saying she didn’t want to be a “pawn” in the controversy.

Miller and Shaw both praised the district for rehiring Jay in

February and spoke out against Chambers.

“In the board meeting, I said I didn’t feel she was the right

person to lead our school,” Scharnell said Monday. “In this day and

age, we cannot volunteer without fearing that if we speak our mind,

that we can be sued. This is my dream. I love this school, and this

is what I get, because I spoke my mind? It puts a person in a hard

state.”

Barbot said district officials could not comment on the matter

because of district policy, but Montanez said Chambers’ claim is

unfounded.

The board met Feb. 24 to discuss reclassifying Chambers, and she’d

been served notice of her release March 11, Montanez said. State law

requires that principals fired after more than two years experience

with a district be reclassified to other positions within the

district, and the district must legally do so before March 15 each

year, he said.

“It’s already been decided, and the court said there was no

violation of any laws regarding her demotion,” Montanez said. “This

is another attempt by her attorneys to get money out of the district.

She said the district improperly demoted her from principal to

teacher, and the court said that’s not the case ... The district’s

position is that this is old wine in a new bottle. They’ve done this

before, and they’ve had a court ruling on it.”

* JEFF BENSON covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at jeff.benson@latimes.com.