A former teacher is suing the Bay County School Board, accusing the district of retaliating against her. She claims the district won’t rehire her because of a previous whistleblower lawsuit.

This summer the principal at Lucille Moore Elementary School hired Johanna Beanblossom for a teaching position. Two days later, district officials reportedly rescinded the offer.

“She was crushed, and just it’s been a long haul, a long haul,” said Attorney Cecile Scoon, who is representing Beanblossom.

Scoon said Beanblossom was fired in 2013 from Mowat Middle School shortly after she wrote complaints against administrators, saying they were not protecting students from being bullied.

Beanblossom filed her first lawsuit in 2014, alleging whistleblower violations.

“You’re just told to handle it, or the disciplinary reports are torn up, or nothing is done, that is horrific just for the teacher to experience but then when you have the teacher shortly thereafter complaining then she’s being targeted for non-renewal and is fired, that’s very concerning,” Scoon said.

Scoon said the court ruled against Beanblossom on technical errors in the first suit, so they are appealing.

Scoon filed a second lawsuit last week demanding Beanblossom be reinstated to the Lucille Moore job. She said Beanblossom shouldn’t be denied employment because she had filed the first lawsuit.

“This effort to block her out because she complained, that needs to stop, and we’ll be going to the court soon to have that reviewed,” Scoon said.

District officials said they haven’t been served the new lawsuit yet but are aware it was filed. They added it is their understanding that many of the claims included in the new lawsuit were dismissed by a judge in the first suit.