ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT ACTIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ...

The latter event was of a more serious nature in that Dixon’s letter warned that continued
behavior in that manner would possibly lead to an unsatisfactory rating.
In September 2007, Herbert, who was not married, became pregnant, which ignited a
great deal of discussion at the school and by parents in the community. Herbert, upon Dixon’s
questioning, related that the father of the child was a former classmate from middle school.
However, the scuttlebutt around the school was that the Garvey was the father of Herbert’s baby.
Dixon, over the course of the next few months, received a great deal of correspondence from
parents concerned about the message that Herbert was sending to the students insomuch that she
was with child out of wedlock. Dixon would later testify that the rampant speculation about the
child’s father began to take its toll on the morale of the teachers and was impacting the everyday
operations of the school.
In January 2008, Dixon requested that Garvey be reassigned from her school on the basis
that he had impregnated her assistant principal, and the pregnancy had become detrimental to the
operation of the school. Just prior to the request and reassignment of Garvey in December 2007,
Herbert submitted an anonymous letter to SCI alleging that Dixon had embezzled funds based on
a phone conversation by the school bookkeeper, Katina Williams, she had overheard. Herbert
took numerous efforts to conceal her identity in this letter. Dixon would report that she never
learned of the complaint or the identity of the complaint’s author until April 2008. Before and
after Herbert’s complaint, Dixon issued five disciplinary letters, four on the same day, to Herbert
regarding the following issues: (1) Herbert’s behavior and language during an exchange with a
parent concerning the identity of her child’s father, (2) Herbert’s behavior during an interaction
with Public School 811’s school nurse, (3) Herbert’s failure to follow directives by allowing a
suspended employee to be on school property during work hours, and (4) Herbert’s failure to
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