Kemp Mill Teachers Sue Principal, Board of Education

Six teachers and staff members at said in a press conference on Tuesday that they are suing the principal, Floyd Starnes, for years of harassment -- and the Board of Education for what they see as neglect and inaction.

Starnes has been the principal there since 2007, and 10 Kemp Mill employees or former employees filed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission harassment complaints against him in 2010. by a group called “Save KMES,” which campaigned for Montgomery County Public Schools to remove Starnes. Although Save KMES appears not to have updated its website or Twitter account for months, Tuesday’s press conference indicates that the issue has not gone away.

"I was at Kemp Mill for 28 years, and the reason we're bringing the lawsuit is to stop the bullying by the principal,” teacher Barbara Reeks told NBC. “It brought great sorrow to see the school brought down from a top quality school to now a school that's underachieving."

The Gazette reported on some of the details of the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday:

The lawsuit states that Starnes referred to students and staff as “babes” and “dolls," took young students into closets — some of whom emerged upset or crying — mooed like a cow at the staff over the intercom, retaliated against employees who reported issues, committed sexual harassment and bullying, created a hostile work environment where employees feared termination, and put false statements in staff evaluations.

Here is the statement that Montgomery County Public Schools released this week in response, as reported on MyFoxDC and WJLA:

“The Board of Education has not been served with a lawsuit, but we are aware that a group of former Kemp Mill Elementary School employees held a press conference to announce they are filing such a suit. We will respond to these allegations in the appropriate manner at the appropriate time.

“It is unfortunate that a group of people is using the media to make accusations—thus far proven to be overwhelmingly false and erroneous—against the principal of Kemp Mill Elementary School.

“These allegations have been raised by some of the same employees in the past and have been the subject of proceedings at various levels, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In each one of these proceedings to date, these allegations were found to have little or no merit, and the EEOC did not move forward with any of the complaints.”

Watch the video reports on MyFoxDC, WJLA, and NBC. Read the story on The Gazette’s website.