The former dean of students at Elizabeth Middle School filed a federal lawsuit Sunday against the Elbert County school district, alleging she was wrongly fired for being a Black woman who spoke out against a districtwide book ban.
LeEllen Condry filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver after obtaining the right to sue from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Colorado Civil Rights Division.
The lawsuit, brought by attorneys Andy McNulty and Mari Newman, alleges the Elizabeth School District discriminated and retaliated against Condry and violated her First Amendment rights after she labeled as racist the removal of books from district library shelves.
“Knowledge is power, but the Elizabeth School District is so hell-bent on depriving its students access to information that it not only banned books expressing marginalized viewpoints, it fired LeEllen Condry for demanding better,” Newman said in a news release.
Dan Snowberger, the Elizabeth School District’s superintendent, told The Denver Post that the district is aware that a former employee is alleging discrimination.
“The employee’s claims are not new and are part of a broader effort by the ACLU to attack the district because of a few decisions a vocal minority disagrees with,” Snowberger wrote in a statement. “The district has and will continue to defend itself in federal court from outside interests attempting to strong-arm the district’s elected board — a board that was overly retained by the voters a few short weeks ago. The district intends to defend itself in court, and the facts will show that the individual’s employment ended because she failed to take the steps to secure the necessary licensure for the position, and because the position was one of several eliminated for cost-saving reasons during a fiscal exigency.”
Condry was hired as the dean of students at Elizabeth Middle School in June 2024. That August, she learned about a new district policy that restricted access to 19 library books the school board deemed “highly sensitive” — largely books written by or about people of color and LGBTQ people.
Some of the removed books — which are now back on shelves because of a court order — included “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini and “#Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights” by Rebecca Felix.
“The book ban was inherently discriminatory, and it was the ESD board’s goal in implementing the ban to suppress voices by Black and LGBTQIA+ authors and content that discussed race-related and LGBTQIA+ topics, characters and experiences,” the lawsuit states.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado sued the Elizabeth School District over the book policy in December.
When the school board requested feedback on the policy, Condry said she wrote a letter explaining how the book ban was “unethical” and “racist.” According to the lawsuit, Condry’s response was “passionate” but “professional.”
After Snowberger read Condry’s feedback, the lawsuit said he sent an email to all employees calling out Condry’s input as crossing the line and demanding “further disciplinary action.”
In October of 2024, the lawsuit said Condry was fired and told that her removal was budget-related.
“It was clear to Ms. Condry, however, that she was being terminated because she was a Black woman who dared to speak up and call the board racist for their decision to implement the book ban and for continually raising concerns about racism within ESD,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleged Condry was replaced by a white woman who supported the removal of the books from library shelves.
“It is time to end corruption, racism and discrimination in the Elizabeth School District,” Condry wrote in a news release. “It is now my time to take back my voice that was once silenced, and to speak up against the dishonest leadership that uses its power to erase the voices of diverse groups of people.”
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