QuickTake:

The lawsuit claims 4J failed to respond to unfounded rumors about the former union leader and the district’s superintendent. The district unsuccessfully argued that any such rumors were comments about a matter of “public interest” and thus protected by the First Amendment.

A Lane County Circuit judge ruled against Eugene School District 4J in allowing a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by a former teachers union president to move forward Tuesday, Feb. 17.

Unfounded rumors about a sexual relationship between then-superintendent Andy Dey and union leader Sabrina Gordon created a hostile work environment for Gordon, the lawsuit contends.

Gordon “absolutely denies this allegation,” Diane Sykes, her attorney, said of the rumored sexual relationship, at a court hearing Tuesday. “This has been a humiliating experience for her.”

Jennifer Gaddis, an attorney for 4J, argued Tuesday that at issue is speech about a matter of public interest, “namely, the negative effects of an inappropriate relationship between two public figures, the union president of the district and the then superintendent of the district.”

Gaddis said this type of speech is protected by the First Amendment.

The district, in court filings, cited Oregon’s Anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or Anti-SLAPP law. The law “is designed to allow the early dismissal of meritless lawsuits aimed at chilling constitutionally protected rights of petition and expression,” attorneys for the district wrote in their Jan. 9 motion to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Gaddis also questioned claims made about sexual rumors.

“There’s also zero proof that sexual rumors were perpetuated,” Gaddis said.

But Sykes argued that the district was “aggressively filing an anti-SLAPP motion to chill” Gordon’s rights in filing the civil lawsuit, which alleges the district failed to follow its own sexual harassment policy and take “reasonable care” to prevent the alleged harassment.

Gordon was hired as a teacher by the district in 1999, served as teachers union president starting in July 2019, and in February 2024 a district employee allegedly confronted her to allege she was having an inappropriate sexual relationship with Dey, the lawsuit states.

One or more district employees “continued to circulate” the false rumor, the lawsuit states, and Gordon submitted her resignation last July, with her last day in September, because of the hostile working conditions she experienced.

“These First Amendment protections cannot be tangentially related to the claim,” Sykes said at the hearing. “These claims are about rampant rumors that went unchecked, that were perpetuated by others, because no one took steps to investigate.”

Dey, hired in 2022, served for about two years as the district’s top administrator. The district’s elected school board voted March 2024 to “mutually separate” after investigations into whether Dey retaliated against a district employee, according to published reports. Gordon is not alleging wrongdoing by Dey in her lawsuit.

Sykes said Tuesday there “is no First Amendment right to perpetuate false rumors of a sexual nature.”

Lane County Circuit Judge Charles Zennaché asked Gaddis if she knew of any other cases in which the anti-SLAPP law was used to stop a sexual discrimination or harassment case under employment law.

In response, Gaddis said, “I am not aware of any case law that fits … neatly in either plaintiff’s position or the defense position on this issue.”

Zennaché said near the end of the approximately 20-minute hearing that he would deny the district’s motion for dismissal.

“I find it fails to meet the burden of showing that claims arise out of protected speech activity. Actually, the claims seem to be primarily around the way the district responded to those things,” Zennaché said.