Tarrant County College communication director sues college for wrongful termination
The executive director of communications at Tarrant County College is the latest employee to file a lawsuit against the college claiming wrongful termination, court records show.
Suzanne Groves, an employee of the college since 2013, alleges that her First Amendment right of free speech and Fifth Amendment right of due process were violated after she went forward to a superior, Kristen Bennett, with documents pertaining to an inappropriate relationship between an employee and former TCC chancellor Eugene Giovannini, who was fired last month.
Bennett, who is also suing the community college, said she was improperly disciplined by the chancellor when she began to intervene in conflicts with the subordinate who had a personal relationship with Giovannini. Bennett was fired by the college in January, according to her lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Monday by Groves says that the college placed her on administrative leave on April 15 and recommended termination of her employment because of her involvement in the situation with Bennett, the unnamed employee and Giovannini.
Groves reportedly provided a document to Bennett last October that showed that the woman who Giovannini was involved with had a criminal record, according to the suit.
“(Groves) gave that document to Dr. Bennett because Dr. Bennett was the supervisor of the woman in question and because the woman in question was already known to have a volatile temperament,” the lawsuit states. “... The (Tarrant County College) District is now retaliating against (Groves) herein for having (as the district sees it) assisted Dr. Bennett in Dr. Bennett’s efforts to regain her job and to seek compensation for defendant’s wrongful conduct.”
The lawsuit argues that Groves was made aware of the employee’s criminal history by a board member and by going to Bennett, “that action and that speech by (Groves,) according to (the college,) was not done in the course of performing her duties as an employee but was, rather, impermissible and outside the scope of her usual duties.”
“The contents of her message were of public importance in that they concerned conduct by an employee which was violative of district policy and allegedly criminal in nature,” the suit said.
Groves alleges that the college retaliated against her for working with Bennett regarding the inappropriate relationship, and furthermore, with the college’s investigation into the inappropriate relationship between Giovannini and a subordinate, a hearing before the board of trustees to appeal her termination wouldn’t provide the “appearance of neutrality.”
“The district is in utter chaos administratively, functionally, and politically because the former chancellor has been fired and (Groves) is accused of impermissibly participating in the process which led to his firing, even though her conduct was specifically protected by the (college)’s own policies and by the First Amendment,” the lawsuit said, adding that present board members were witness to the wrongful conduct “prior to public disclosure … but … took no action to rectify the situation.”
A spokesperson for Tarrant County College declined to comment on the lawsuit.
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 11:42 AM.
