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Former principal files federal lawsuit against Raymond School District
A former Wisconsin principal of the year is taking his former school district to federal court. According to the complaint, Jeffrey Peterson claims Raymond School District leaders and political operatives conspired to harass, defame, and fire him because of his sexual orientation.
RAYMOND, Wis. - A former Wisconsin Principal of the Year is taking his former school district to federal court. According to the complaint, Jeffrey Peterson claims Raymond School District leaders and political operatives conspired to harass, defame, and fire him because of his sexual orientation.
Federal lawsuit
What we know:
This 27-page federal lawsuit outlines 11 formal legal claims against 10 named defendants, including the Raymond School District, school board members, and private political operatives.
The document alleges one of the defendants, Kari Morgan – former Village of Raymond president – took a 100-plus page public record packet, extracted a targeted 36-page subset to strip out exculpatory evidence supporting Peterson, and loaded it onto thumb drives along with an anonymous letter accusing Peterson of "child grooming."
Text message logs between board member Amanda Falaschi and Moms for Liberty Vice Chair JoAnn Koenecke are also mentioned where both defendants are coordinating to leak the altered records to reporters – with one message reading: "I AM THE ONE TO GET THE INFO TO THE MEDIA."
The lawsuit also states that in response to public record requests, district officials released private information including the name and sex of Peterson's partner. The documents say that information was made public via the school's website.
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According to the lawsuit, this caused Peterson financial harm after he lost his job as principal and caused harm to his reputation. Peterson is requesting back pay, front pay, compensatory and punitive damages – as well as court orders requiring the district to redact his private health and partner records from all public websites and future record requests.
Peterson alleges the Raymond School District, school board, and conservative interest groups initiated a targeted effort to remove him from his position as principal.
FOX6 News was able to speak with the Raymond School District superintendent. However, he said they are unable to comment due to ongoing litigation. FOX6 News also reached out to everyone named in the lawsuit, but has not heard back.
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Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6’s Abril Preciado and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.
The Source: Information in this story was gathered from federal court filings, Jeffrey Peterson, the Raymond School District superintendent, Kari Morgan, Amanda Falaschi and JoAnn Koenecke.