Interesting Trial in Portland

regarding a whistleblower complaint by a Portland Public Schools former special education administrator who alleges retaliation for standing up for her students.

School districts typically fight employee lawsuits to the death, unlike parent lawsuits, which they usually settle.

Details:

In 2009, Stacey Sibley, founding principal of Portland's Pioneer Special School Program schools for students with severe disabilities, was moved to a do-nothing central office job for a few months then named assistant principal of Ockley Green School.

Sibley says in her lawsuit that's because she clashed repeatedly with her boss, then-special ed director Joanne Mabbott, over Sibley's concerns about student and staff safety at the schools and complained to Mabbott's bosses when Mabbott wouldn't take action. She's seeking $772,000 in damages.

School district leaders counter that budget pressures forced them to eliminate many administrator positions that year and Sibley could have remained at Pioneer if she had accepted additional job responsibilities, but she refused. Ockley Green needed a seasoned assistant principal knowledgeable about special ed, and Sibley did a great job in the role, they say.