Natalie Bowersock, an East Porter County School Corporation board member, is suing the school corporation, its board, and Superintendent Aaron Case to lift a no trespass order against her for Washington Township Schools that prevents her from attending her three children’s school activities.
The verified complaint is for a restraining order, preliminary injunction, and declaratory relief for the situation that Bowersock said is causing distress to her children and professional stress for her husband, who is an employee of the school. She was tearful in a phone interview Thursday night over missing her daughter’s softball game.
“My daughter had a really nice hit tonight, and she had to come home and tell me about it,” she said.
“I was told the only way they would consider revoking the trespass warning would be if she gave up the (board) seat,” said Bowersock’s attorney Daniel Zlatic, adding her attorneys “want her to be able to do what every other parent in the school district can do, which is to pick up and drop off her kids and attend her kids’ sports and school activities. It seems kind of heavy-handed for them to be barring her from these activities.”
Background in the case is extensive, involving a tort claim Bowersock filed after she alleges her son was so severely injured at school by another student in the spring that he required surgery. She said they had no intention of suing, but the tort claim was a necessary legal maneuver to preserve that option as they navigated an out-of-court agreement to allay the $7,000 in medical bills.
The court filing cites a complaint by Bowersock to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a formal complaint of harassment by a corporation employee against Bowersock, and an incident at a private, non-school event as other factors in the no trespass order. The case was originally assigned to Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer, but he recused himself according to Bowersock.
An order was signed Thursday, according to Porter County Clerk Jessica Bailey, giving the parties seven days to agree on a special judge. If they can’t agree, or whoever they choose declines, the matter will go to the court administrator to be assigned.
Case and several members of the board declined to comment on the matter.
Case said he “can’t speak on threatened or pending litigation.” How the legal fees incurred by the district will be paid for “depends on how it plays out,” Case said. He said insurance is the likely funding, though the operation fund is also a possible source.
Bowersock began her first term on the board in January. She worked at the school as a special education teacher for five years, and her husband is a longtime teacher and basketball coach there. She contends Case is trying to remove her from the board because of the EEOC complaint she filed Feb. 28 over what she characterizes as sexist treatment on the board, and because she asks more questions and makes more demands for information than the other board members.
“We get a weekly email and I will ask maybe three questions and they don’t ask any,” she said of her fellow board members. “They have said that I’m stressing out the central office with requests for documents, but I feel I have a duty to be informed when we’re spending thousands of dollars. I would think they would want to have the answers before they vote.
“I feel that they’re punishing me and hoping that I’ll resign,” she said. “I’m literally just suing so I can have access to go back on school property, and that is it.”
Bowersock said she filed the EEOC complaint for two reasons. First, she was denied her request to have the relevant documents prepared for board members in advance of each board meeting brought home to her by her husband while she was dealing with a medical condition and subsequent surgery. She said she knew the packets were being delivered weekly to the mailbox of fellow board member Bob Martin.
“The packets were definitely being delivered to Bob. They said that at a board meeting,” Bowersock said. She also included in her complaint her observation that requests she made for items to be placed on the board meeting agenda were ignored. “I would request they be placed in the agenda and they would not be, but would do so for male members,” Bowersock recalled.
A court filing states that on July 23, she received a cease and desist letter dated July 16 from Case on behalf of EPCSC, asserting that an unidentified school employee had submitted a formal complaint against her alleging a hostile work environment through “repeated harassment.” The filing says Bowersock was to cease and desist from any communication with any employee of EPCSC regarding the subject matter of the complaint, the tort claim, or any related issues, and restricted her from school property without first receiving written authorization from Board President Richard McSparin or Case.
The filing also states the only example of “repeated harassment” regarded the purchase and public reference of a “wine product” bearing a name said to be associated with an individual who is the subject of the tort claim.
Bowersock said she and her husband were invited to a party at the home of the Washington Middle High School principal on May 31 and that she took him a nice bottle of wine as a “water under the bridge” gift regarding the tort claim, but also joked, “It’s not the bad gift,” referring to a bag of several less expensive bottles she also brought along.
One of them was branded with the same name as the boy who allegedly injured her son. She believes that to be the root of the “repeated harassment” claim, but doesn’t believe the principal was intimidated by her. “He was laughing and we had a really good time and left the party really glad that we went,” she recalls.
She said they congratulated graduates on stage together days later and served together on a committee to select a new baseball coach. “That was months ago. If they had an investigation about a bottle of wine, why haven’t they finished it?”
It’s unclear if the no trespass order will prevent Bowersock from attending any future school board meetings. In the past, the board has rotated its public meeting place among the three campuses of Washington Township Schools, Morgan Township Schools, and Kouts Schools. “I’m not sure if they’ll avoid Washington because of that,” Bowersock said.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.