Former teacher files lawsuit against district
Justin Kucera claims he was punished over pro-Trump tweets
Justin Kucera, a former Walled Lake teacher who was terminated last summer after posting proTrump tweets, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Walled Lake Consolidated School District.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan against the school district, superintendent Kenneth Gutman and Michael Lonze, assistant superintendent of human resources, alleges that Kucera was “unlawfully and illegally” retaliated against for “protected speech” after posting several tweets in July 2020. The lawsuit states that the termination violated Kucera’s constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection employment under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
The school district would not comment on the lawsuit.
On July 6, 2020, Kucera posted two tweets in support of President Trump demanding schools reopen this fall. The tweets included one from Kucera that read, “I’m done being silent. @realDonaldTrump is our president. Don’t @ me,” and a reply to a follower’s tweet that read, “Liberals suck man.” He also shared a Trump tweet that read, “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!”
On July 15 2020, Kucera, a Walled Lake Western High School teacher and baseball coach, was offered the chance to resign after posting the tweets on July 6. On July 16, Kucera rejected the offer and was told July 17 that he would be fired effective immediately. During a July 22 phone conversation, Gutman offered Kucera his job back, calling it a “sincere conversation” that involved the discussion of alternative options for discipline, according to personnel records obtained by The Oakland Press in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
According to district records, Kucera informed Gutman on July 23 that he would not be returning to the district. He thanked Gutman for the conversation a day earlier, but stated
that he felt he could not return to school as the “issue” would “follow him into the classroom” saying that if only one student had concerns, it will “damage his ability to be an effective teacher.”
As a result of his termination, Kucera states
in the lawsuit that he has “was harmed, and continues to be harmed, in that he has suffered economic and non-economic loss, including but not limited to, lost wages, damage to professional reputation, emotional distress, outrage and humiliation.”
Before Kucera was offered the chance to come back, the district cited the “liberals suck” tweet as the reason for termination, and
that he was not disciplined for expressing his support of Trump. Gutman called the tweet, which Kucera later deleted, “inappropriate” and one that “demonstrated a lack of judgement creating an unsafe or unsuitable environment.” Kucera expressed that he was “sorry,” it was a “mistake,” and that the tweet meant to be “sarcastic” could be “damaging to students.”
Kucera is seeking a judge to grant an injunction to reinstate him to his position and to “prohibit any further unconstitutional actions” by the district. He’s also seeking “compensatory damages for monetary and nonmonetary loss in whatever amount he is found to be entitled,” “exemplary and punitive damages in whatever amount he is found to be entitled” and “a judgment for lost wages and
benefits, past and future.”
According to the lawsuit, Kucera is a “political conservative, republican, and supporter of former President Donald Trump during the 2020 election.”
His Facebook account shows that he began working as a manufacturing technician at Auburn Hillsbased Jabil Circuit Inc., in October. As of Thursday morning, Kucera’s Twitter account was private.