Republished from the January 19 Vermont Standard
Former Windsor High School Principal Tiffany Riley, who said she was improperly fired by the Mount Ascutney School Board in June 2020 for a comment she posted about Black Lives Matter on her personal Facebook page, has settled her federal lawsuit for $650,000.
Riley, who broke her long silence during a weekend interview with the Vermont Standard, said the unjustified firing was devastating and essentially ended a successful 20-year education career. She had noted in her lawsuit that comments made by the Mount Ascutney School Board and other officials had hampered her job search in education.
Riley, who is a 1989 Woodstock Union High School graduate, said after her firing she applied for nearly 50 school jobs and never got one response.
The Mount Ascutney School Board has now agreed to provide Riley with a positive recommendation letter as part of the settlement in the case. It said that while principal, “Ms. Riley worked diligently with staff to change the school’s culture. Under Principal Riley, students were held accountable for their attendance, behavior and academic achievements,” the one-page letter said in part.
Read more at The Vermont Standard, Windsor County’s largest, and the state of Vermont’s oldest, weekly newspaper. It serves the towns of Woodstock, Barnard, Bridgewater, Hartland, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, Quechee, and West Windsor.