A Vermont Superior Court Judge dismissed a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former Brattleboro Union High School principal against his former school district.
Principal Steve Perrin was fired in November 2022 after the Windham Southeast School District accused him of mishandling an investigation into a sexual assault. A former student also accused him of harassing her and making inappropriate advances, according to court documents.
Perrin first appealed his termination to the school board following his firing. After school board members affirmed their decision to terminate him, he filed the lawsuit in March 2023.
Perrin vehemently denied the claims and alleged that the school board had wrongfully terminated him, defamed him and denied him his due process.
Superior Court Judge David Barra, in a Nov. 26 ruling, granted summary judgement to the defendants, including the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, the Windham Southeast School District, and the 10 individuals serving as members of the board at the time of Perrin’s termination.
The decision was first reported by the Brattleboro Reformer.
Perrin could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Theodore Kramer, said in an email that “from time to time a case comes along that shakes your faith in fairness and our system of justice.”
“In the process of defending him, many educators confided in us that ‘there but for the grace of God go I,'” Kramer wrote. “That is to say, one accuser can end a career.”
Kramer added that Perrin was “undeterred, and determined to secure justice” and said he planned on appealing to the Vermont Supreme Court.
Perrin first started as principal of the Brattleboro school in 2011 but was fired in November 2022 after a decision of the school board. The board determined that it was “more likely than not” that Perrin had conducted an “inappropriate and harmful investigation” of a student’s sexual assault, according to court documents.
An independent investigator hired by the school district after the allegations surfaced found a “pattern of harassment, abuse, and unprofessional conduct” by Perrin, court documents read.
The former student, named Jane Doe in court documents, said that Perrin had interviewed her about a sexual assault off campus while she was a student at Brattleboro Union High School.
According to court documents, the former principal interviewed the student alone and behind closed doors in his office. He did not notify her parents of the interview despite her request to do so.
“Perrin persisted in questioning her despite her reluctance to answer and threatened her with an accusation of filing a false report,” court documents read.
Perrin then allegedly instructed a staff member not to file a report about the sexual assault with the Vermont Department for Children and Families that the staff member felt was required, according to court documents. (A report was eventually filed.)
Following the interview, Perrin had several more “uncomfortable interactions” with Doe — calling her into his office to interview her alone again, walking her between classes and making “uncomfortable and unwelcome remarks” about her appearance, according to court documents.
Perrin “touched Doe’s hair on one occasion” and “took a sexual interest in Doe,” according to court documents and transcripts.
Kramer, in an email, dismissed the allegations as “the most incredible and nonsensical of accusations.”
The school board, Kramer said in court documents, failed to “properly weigh the evidence,” and he said conflicting testimony was not considered. He further argued the student’s testimony lacked any corroborating evidence.
Barra disagreed, writing in his decision that there was “sufficient evidence to make the findings the Board made.”
In weighing the school board’s decision to terminate Perrin, Barra wrote that it was not the role of the Superior Court to weigh the strength of testimony or corroboration, but to weigh whether the board’s decision was appropriate given the available evidence.
The “existence of conflicting testimony is not grounds for overturning the Board Decision,” he wrote.
Barra said he found nothing to support Perrin’s argument that his due process rights were violated. He similarly denied other allegations aired by Perrin, including defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“Perrin spends much time attacking Doe’s credibility, but not the sufficiency of the Board’s findings if her testimony is believed,” Barra wrote in his dismissal. “Witness after witness when questioned confirmed the simple truth that if Doe’s testimony were true the Board Decision was proper.”
“The question for the court to consider is whether there was sufficient basis in the testimony to support the findings and conclusions,” Barra wrote. “There is.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Judge David Barra.
