A former Groves High substitute teacher is fighting Birmingham Public Schools in a case her lawyer calls "Kafkaesque."
Tricia Stocco of Rochester, who sued the district this week, says she lost her job last December after someone claimed she threatened to blow up the suburban school, Mike Martindale writes at The Detroit News.
A supervisor at the school told her that because of alleged "violent text messages" her "employment ends now."
Stocco said she was immediately escorted off school premises by a security guard, had her personal belongings delivered to her car and was barred from returning to any of Birmingham's public school grounds.
"You were heard threatening to blow up Groves High School with a bomb," was the explanation she was given, according to her lawyer, Nicholas Roumel of Ann Arbor.
"There is nothing in her character to suggest she is even capable of this," Roumel said. "She is a level-headed person who wants to teach." . . .
"Her story is rather Kafkaesque. Someone supposedly made an accusation against her, but no one will say who the person was that made the claim. She's not even able to defend herself and she's having a difficult time finding a full-time job."
The educator is suing the Board of Education of Birmingham Public Schools and others for alleged defamation and violation of the state Employee Right To Know law. Birmingham school officials could not be reached for comment Friday, according to Martindale.
Stocco, who lives in Rochester, has a bachelor of science degree in secondary education from Eastern Michigan University, he adds.
