A former Peoples Academy teacher who is suing his ex-employer for wrongful termination had his first day in court on Monday.
David Bain, who argues that superintendent Tracy Wrend pushed him out of the district on trumped-up disciplinary charges, took the stand for several hours, at one point breaking down in tears as he described being interrogated about his relationship with a female student.
In a federal lawsuit, Bain alleges that Wrend targeted him after he began to campaign for union president — a campaign that was spurred by his vocal concerns over her leadership.
His lawyer, Chandler Matson, of the Barr Law Group in Stowe, introduced the case to a jury by telling them on Monday it would be about “circumstantial evidence.” When it rains overnight, the Stowe-based attorney told the courtroom, one usually can’t hear or see the storm. But upon waking up and taking stock of the puddles and muddy ground, one can pretty accurately guess what’s happened.
In a similar fashion, Matson said the case should allow the jury to connect the dots between a union meeting Bain called in February of 2014, where he advocated for a “no confidence” vote in Wrend, and the trouble Bain repeatedly found himself in afterward.
Bain had been a teacher in the district for a quarter-century, and had had a largely unblemished record. But suddenly, Matson said, “he could just do nothing right.”
“That union meeting got him in the doghouse,” the attorney said.
But Pietro Lynn, a Burlington-based attorney representing the district, countered in his opening arguments that Bain had had – and, as an active union member, been well aware of – a multitude of options for contesting the claims against him.
Instead, Lynn said, the veteran educator “admitted that he engaged in behavior that was inconsistent with expectations.”
“Mr. Bain’s harm was caused by his choices,” Lynn told the jury.
The teacher’s difficulties with administrators began to snowball after an incident in May of 2014, according to testimony. At the time, Bain’s daughter also attended the school, and, during a weekend sleepover at Bain’s house, one of his daughter’s friends told him that another teacher had hit her during class.
Bain said the teen told him her parents knew and planned to contact the school. The following Monday, he also reported the incident to a building administrator, as he believed he was required to according to school policies.
But a subsequent investigation into the incident apparently landed Bain himself in the crosshairs of the administration. His daughter, who had been present for the incident, was interviewed by administrators. Afterward, she told her father she had thought the questions were strange.
“All the questions were more about me than the hitting incident,” he told Matson while on the stand.
In interviews with Bain over the course of the next few days, Wrend pressed him about why he hadn’t reported the incident to the Department for Children and Families within 24 hours, which is required of mandatory reporters in the case of suspected child neglect or abuse.
And she also began to interrogate him about another female student, who often spent study hall in Bain’s room. Wrend wanted to know if he often talked to the student outside of school, Bain said, and if they had a sexual relationship. In recounting that line of questioning, he broke down.
“The answer to all of the questions was no, no, no,” he said.
“She’s my daughter’s friend,” he added, his voice just above a whisper.
In a cross-examination, Lynn grilled Bain on a series of emails he sent Wrend, asking to be put on a “last chance” agreement, which effectively puts teachers on probation. The emails appeared to show Bain admitting at least some fault. “I’ve made mistakes,” he wrote in one.
But Bain pushed back, saying he was simply desperate to keep his job.
“I was frantic at the time. Being accused of grooming,” he said, referring to behaviors sexual predators use to gain a minor’s trust.
Bain ultimately did agree to a two-year “last chance” contract, which agreed to a 10-day suspension without pay and which waived his right to contest termination in the event he was fired for violating the agreement.
That summer, Bain bumped into a former student at the grocery store, and asked her to write a letter of recommendation attesting to his good character, in case the accusations against him surfaced again. The former student asked him who he had been accused of grooming, and, when she guessed the correct person, Bain told the jury he “shrugged (his) shoulders.”
The encounter made it back to administrators, and Wrend recommended to the school board he be fired for violating student confidentiality. They did so, and Bain was officially fired in September of 2014.
Bain received a public reprimand from the Vermont Agency of Education, which is charged with disciplining licensed school personnel, for “failure to maintain professional boundaries” in February of 2015. The grocery store incident led to the agency’s licensing action, according to court filings.
The lawsuit had initially alleged Bain’s termination represented discrimination on the basis of age and sex, violated due process, and that his employer inflicted intentional emotional distress. But U.S. District Court chief judge Geoffrey Crawford dismissed those claims in earlier orders.
The trial is scheduled to continue through Thursday.
