Grossmont Union High School District will pay a former administrator more than $700,000 — and her lawyers nearly $500,000 — to settle her lawsuit alleging she was demoted and effectively fired because she is a lesbian.
Rose Tagnesi had sued last year, saying she was forced out of the district’s top special-education job after more than a decade by an anti-LGBTQ+ majority of the school board.
In a statement provided by her lawyer, she said the settlement signals to the larger LGBTQ+ community that their rights matter. “In the future, I’m hopeful the district will take decisive action toward creating the culture of inclusivity its students and teachers deserve,” she wrote.
Tagnesi was demoted to a classroom teaching job early last year, after what she described as a secret investigation into a 2020 incident at Santana High School. She had served as the district’s special-ed director since 2010.
That incident — in which a student left school grounds, then went missing for five days during which she was trafficked — also led to demotions for other administrators, an internal investigation and a lawsuit by the student’s family. Tagnesi was not named as a defendant in that lawsuit.
The district settled with the family for $400,000 in 2023 but later reopened its own investigation — this time with an outside attorney who Tagnesi argued was aligned with the three board members she said were anti-LGBTQ+.
According to her lawsuit, her targeting in that investigation was part of a broader “discriminatory campaign” by the board majority. The district had also banned books with LGBTQ+ content and ended its contract with a mental-health provider because it separately offered specialized services to LGBTQ+ people.
“Ms. Tagnesi, a proud member of the LGBTQ community who served GUHSD for over 28 years in exemplary fashion, was one of the many victims of the anti-LGBTQ majority board’s discriminatory campaign,” her lawsuit said.
The San Diego Union-Tribune last year filed a public records request for the findings of the district’s internal investigation into the Santana High incident. Its request was denied, with the district citing attorney-client privilege.
An attorney for two other administrators who sued over their demotions said Monday that their lawsuit is still pending.
Under the terms of Tagnesi’s settlement, the district must put $700,000 in an account for future payments to her over two decades, and it will immediately pay her nearly $19,000. It also agreed to pay more than $481,000 for her attorney fees.
Tagnesi has no plans to seek further employment with the district, she said as part of the settlement, which the Union-Tribune obtained via a public records request.
District spokesperson Collin McGlashen said that in settling, the district was neither admitting wrongdoing nor validating the suit’s claims but rather aimed “to allow all parties to move forward in the most productive way possible.”
Gary Woods, now president of the district’s board and one of the trustees accused of being part of an “anti-LGBTQ majority,” gave the same statement. He said the district had settled in order to limit its legal costs and do what’s best for students.
Tagnesi’s attorney Aaron Olsen said his client had stood up for herself and all LGBTQ+ people. “Over many years, she was tirelessly dedicated to her students — and she has now gone to great lengths to ensure a culture of inclusivity is created for them,” he wrote.
The district’s board of trustees voted to approve the settlement last month, and a notice of dismissal by the court was filed last week.
Kristen Taketa and Alex Riggins contributed reporting.