The cheeky Ohio teacher who reportedly called in sick to attend a concert in Nashville is fighting the school that fired her.
Eileen Washburn, a former English teacher at Lakota West High School in Liberty Township, filed a lawsuit against the Lakota Local School District.
In the document, she argued that she was unfairly fired after the school board accused her of taking “false sick leave” from Feb. 8 to 9 to go see a musical performance with her teenage son.
The board placed Washburn on unpaid leave in April, alleging that he had bragged about attending the concert to his co-workers and failed to provide details about why he needed the sick leave.
But in October, the English teacher was officially fired from the high school, as described in the lawsuit.
Washburn claimed his actions were not fireable offenses and that other teachers were “disciplined less harshly or not at all for using sick pay when they were not sick,” according to the document.
Eileen Washburn, an English teacher at Lakota West High School, has filed a lawsuit against the school that fired her for calling in sick to go to a concert.
Washburn was officially dismissed from Lakota West High School in Liberty Township in October. Now he is fighting to get his job back.
‘EM. ‘Washburn’s conduct was not hostile to the school community and could not have harmed the school community or students, as required to justify dismissal,’ the document states.
He also claimed that he had a legitimate reason for being out sick on those two days and provided the school with a doctor’s note explaining why he had to miss work.
Washburn said she was “reluctant” to respond to requests for additional information about her medical condition because it was a “personal matter.”
During the first school board meeting to discuss Washburn’s “fraudulent” sick leave, she alleged that Human Resources Executive Director Rob Kramer called her a “liar.”
In the lawsuit, Washburn demanded that she be reinstated to her teaching position. He also expects “back pay and all contractual benefits and full reinstatement of seniority in all respects.”
The school district responded to Washburn’s claims in a counterpresentationstating that “the record speaks for itself.”
It is unclear who performed at the concert that cost Washburn his job.
She has been an educator in Ohio for about two decades and has no other blemishes on her record, according to the lawsuit.
Washburn reportedly called out sick in February to go to a concert in Nashville with her teenage son.
The Lakota Local School District decided to place Washburn on unpaid leave in April.
Washburn taught ESL in high school and still holds a seat on the Loveland Board of Education.
According to her profile page on the Loveland City School District website, Washburn is married with children and has lived in the city of Loveland since 2005.
He previously taught at Princeton High School before moving on to teach English at Lakota West High School in 2015.