Teacher took student to get abortion and lost license, suit says. Now she has it back
A New Hampshire woman says her teaching license was wrongly revoked after she drove a student to the student’s abortion appointment in the fall of 2023, resulting in her firing.
Now, her license has been restored days after she filed a lawsuit against the New Hampshire Department of Education and its officials, her attorney James J. Armillay Jr. told McClatchy News in a June 27 email.
Before losing her job, and then her teaching credentials, the woman’s lawsuit — filed June 24 — says a “misleading narrative” was created in an op-ed written by state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut that damaged her reputation.
In the piece published in April titled “Thank God someone is looking out for the children,” Edelblut accused her of taking the student to get an abortion without the student’s parents knowing.
However, the woman says she had no legal obligation to inform the student’s parents.
The student was older than 18 and didn’t live with her parents, according to the lawsuit, which says the woman had worked with the student for years as a reading teacher at a private institution, the lawsuit says.
Officials with the state Department of Education knew the student’s age before Edelblut’s opinion article debuted on the Department of Education’ website, suggesting the student was a minor, the lawsuit says.
In the op-ed, Edelblut discussed an alleged incident when “an educator lies by calling in sick so they can take a student — without parental knowledge — to get an abortion,” according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, this suggested the woman violated a state law that requires parents to be notified when their minor child seeks an abortion.
The op-ed was “intended to intimidate (her) into voluntarily surrendering her credentials and leaving education altogether,” the lawsuit says.
License is reinstated
The woman is suing over how her teaching credentials were revoked and to obtain a judgment that declares the revocation was unlawful.
In a matter of days, the lawsuit helped get her license back the morning of June 27, Armillay told McClatchy News.
“I was gratified to learn (Thursday) morning that as a result of this lawsuit the New Hampshire Department of Education has reinstated Ms. Doe’s teaching credentials while the administrative process plays out,” Armillay said.
The state Department of Education referred McClatchy News’ request for comment to the state attorney general’s office.
“We will review the complaint and respond as appropriate in due course,” Michael Garrity, a spokesperson for the office, told McClatchy News in an email on June 27.
The student’s abortion
According to the lawsuit, when the student told her teacher she was pregnant last year, the student didn’t know what to do.
She did not want to inform her family because she feared they “would influence her decision making,” the lawsuit says.
The teacher wanted her student “to be empowered to make an informed decision” and let her know about a community health center where she could seek guidance and educational resources, the lawsuit says.
The student then decided to schedule an abortion procedure at the center, according to the lawsuit.
Before her appointment, she told the teacher she was unable to find a ride, the lawsuit says.
“Out of concern for (the student’s) safety and well-being,” the teacher agreed to drive her to her procedure, according to the lawsuit.
After the school’s administration learned of this, it fired her, the lawsuit says.
The incident was referred to the state Department of Education, which launched an investigation, according to the lawsuit.
Teacher is ‘excited to get back into the classroom’
The lawsuit says the department chose to revoke the woman’s teaching license on June 17.
However, the woman says this was unlawful, in part because she wasn’t provided with “sufficient notice of the facts and reasons for (the) decision,” the lawsuit says.
She also says a fair investigation wasn’t conducted.
The woman now works as a teacher at another school and will begin a summer teaching job on July 8, the lawsuit says.
When the license was taken away, this jeopardized her employment, according to the lawsuit.
A hearing over her civil case is scheduled for July 3, court records show.
“We are confident that when presented with all of the evidence in this case, an impartial hearing officer will determine that Ms. Doe did not violate the Code of Conduct for New Hampshire Educators, and that no sanction is warranted,” Armillay told McClatchy News.
“In the meantime, Ms. Doe is excited to get back into the classroom to do what she loves: teaching New Hampshire’s students.”
This story was originally published June 27, 2024 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Teacher took student to get abortion and lost license, suit says. Now she has it back."
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