A Virginia superintendent is suing the school board that fired him, claiming he was fired from his job for promoting Christianity in his spare time.
Mark Taylor was hired by Spotsylvania County in September 2022 despite having no experience in education and being furious over social media posts attacked as racist and homophobic.
The board referenced the posts when it fired him in January of this year, but Taylor claims the real reason was his endorsement of child star-turned-evangelical activist Kirk Cameron and his campaign against “woke” books in schools.
The Growing Pains actor was the star attraction at a book fair sponsored by Taylor on school property to promote Christian children’s books that “reinforce biblically based core values.”
“This is primarily a First Amendment retaliation case,” Taylor’s attorney, Thomas Strelka, told the Independent. “U.S. public school employees may be victims of unconstitutional retaliation due to the overly charged politicized environment.”
Mark Taylor claims the Spotsylvania County School Board fired him for embarrassing them with his promotion of Christian children’s books in his spare time.
Actor-turned-evangelist and writer Kirk Cameron was the star attraction at a Christian book fair paid for by Taylor at a school under his jurisdiction.
Taylor promised to create an environment of “inclusion and high achievement” when he was hired by the board for the $245,000 job, despite opposition from his opponents, including his own estranged daughter.
“Never in a million years did I really think they would consider my father superintendent,” said Jael Taylor, who was homeschooled by her father.
‘For many, many years there was very little to do with any kind of learning in textbooks. And to this day I still feel that there are many gaps in my education.’
Taylor, a former county administrator, blamed hackers for posts that attacked white people for supporting Coca Cola and mercilessly mocked LGBTQ people, before the board appointed him in a 4-3 vote.
The new superintendent pulled 14 “sexually explicit” books from shelves, including two by revered black author Toni Morrison, as concerns about the contents of school libraries were brought to the front lines of the nation’s culture wars.
Cameron helped lead that campaign, accusing Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books, of flooding schools with “pornographic” and “sexually explicit” material.
“We all grew up with Scholastic, all of us, as the publisher of these great books, and Clifford the Big Red Dog and Stuart Little and James and The Giant Peach and all the fun little crossword puzzles,” Cameron told Christian Broadcasting Network in April. .
“Well, your book fairs are now full of the kind of progressive socialist Marxist stuff that is undermining God, family, and country.”
Taylor promised to create an environment of “inclusion and high achievement” when the board hired him for the $245,000 job in September 2022.
But his critics were angered by his unkind social media posts.
Cameron, pictured with Dudley Moore, was a child star of the 1980s who earned two Golden Globe nominations for his work playing Mike Seaver on the ABC comedy Growing Pains.
He has since become one of the leading activists against “obscene” books in schools.
Weeks before he was fired, Taylor rented space in one of the county’s schools to host an exhibit for Brave Books, which aims to “empower your children against woke culture.”
The event was organized by SkyTree Book Fairs, which promotes a “school choice alternative to the sexually explicit content distributed at Scholastic book fairs.”
But Taylor claims the board was infuriated by the publicity attracted by Cameron, who was there to promote “the need to disseminate Christian literature,” according to the lawsuit.
“The theme of the book fair was to showcase literature that had been endorsed by conservative Christian authors and critics,” he says.
“The books available at the book fair were marketed by Mr. Taylor as an alternative to literature that Mr. Taylor and other conservative, Christian-minded individuals considered obscene due to their religious beliefs.”
The following month, Taylor was placed on administrative leave “without notice.”
“This letter is to inform you that the Spotsylvania County School Board believes you have sufficient cause to terminate your employment with Spotsylvania County Public Schools for cause,” the board told him.
In March of this year, the board upheld his dismissal, citing the hiring of “several unlicensed and unqualified employees in violation of state law and school division policy, and the improper disposal of school property.”
He also warned potential employers that “numerous documented offensive and inappropriate social media posts on various social media platforms may call into question your ability to serve as a school superintendent in any school system in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Taylor’s LinkedIn profile suggests she has not yet found another job, and claims the “fabricated” explanation for her dismissal was concocted to disguise the board’s “retaliation” for her high-profile work with Cameron.
The board “allows the public to reserve and use school property for events like book fairs,” he claims, and he was acting “as a private citizen and never used his position as superintendent to organize the book fair.”
Reports at the time suggested that Taylor’s contract included a provision guaranteeing more than three years of salary even if he was fired.
But he is suing for lost wages, compensatory and punitive damages, alleging that he has “suffered and will continue to suffer emotional distress and other significant financial and personal damages, due to retaliation committed by the Board.”
Children’s book publisher Scholastic, the world’s largest, has been criticized by activists for its “woke” titles and “pornographic” content.
The feud at the heart of the school board saw member Lisa Phelps, left, accuse fellow student Nicole Cole of assault and battery earlier this year.
The board, which has not commented on the claim, voted unanimously to fire Taylor and hired a replacement.
But it remains divided by personal animosity that saw one member accused of assault and battery against another in July this year.
Nicole Cole found herself in court accused of slamming a door on board member Lisa Phelps during a May 20 meeting and causing her to trip.
Taylor was in court to support Phelps, and board member Carol Medawar supported Cole, claiming that she had decided to start recording the meeting when Phelps began “yelling and screaming and calling me evil.”
Judge Gene Woolard dismissed the case in Spotsylvania General District Court and admonished the board for its conduct.
“Chaos is a good word,” he noted.