Updated 6:30 p.m. Friday to include additional photo of Bailey and Vazquez.

A Mansfield ISD elementary school teacher suspended last fall after at least one parent complained that she had discussed her sexual orientation with students has sued the district, alleging discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Stacy Bailey, 31, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday accusing the district, Superintendent Jim Vaszauskas and Associate Superintendent Kimberley Cantu of violating her rights under federal and state equal protection laws and Texas Equal Rights Amendment.

According to Bailey's lawyer, this photo of Bailey and Julie Vazquez, then her fiancee and now her wife, is what she showed her pupils in her slideshow. According to her lawsuit, a parent later complained to the school board and superintendent that Bailey was promoting the "homosexual agenda" by talking about her "future wife. (Handout)

Bailey's suit says she has "suffered in the past, and in all reasonable likelihood, will suffer in the future, damages including lost earning capacity, mental anguish, emotional pain and suffering, lost employment benefits, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life [and] damage to professional reputation."

Stacy Bailey has been on paid leave since last fall. (TNS)

In addition to seeking attorney and court fees, the lawsuit asks that Bailey be reinstated as an art teacher at Charlotte Anderson Elementary and says she wants the school district and administrators to acknowledge that they "illegally discriminated against" her because of her sexual orientation.

"Stacy is filing this lawsuit and taking this action in hopes of pushing Mansfield out of the shadows of discrimination and into the sunshine of equal rights," Bailey's lawyer, Jason C.N. Smith, said at a news conference Tuesday after the suit was filed.

Mansfield ISD, in an emailed statement, "categorically" denied the allegations and said the suit had no merit.

"The issue at Charlotte Anderson Elementary School is whether Mrs. Bailey has followed District guidelines requiring that controversial subjects be taught in 'an impartial and objective manner,'" Mansfield ISD's statement says. "Teachers shall not use the classroom to transmit personal belief regarding political or sectarian issues."

"The record will show through discovery in this lawsuit that Mansfield ISD is and has been an inclusive, supportive environment for LGBT staff for decades," the statement says.

Mansfield ISD placed Bailey on paid leave in September, saying parents had the right to "control the conversation with their children, especially as it relates to religion, politics, sex/sexual education, etc."

The controversy started after Bailey showed a "First Day of School" PowerPoint presentation to her students on Aug. 23, according to her lawsuit. Her presentation, aimed at engaging with her students, included photos of her parents, her family, her friends and her fiancee, Julie Vazquez, who is now her wife.

Other slides provided class rules, rewards and expectations for the year.

"It's been a roller coaster," Vazquez said at the news conference. "We've been in disbelief. We've been shocked. We've been hurt deeply. And I think the hardest thing to handle is the isolation that Stacy has had to endure because she can't speak for herself and she can't talk to the people who have been her support system for the last 10 years."

Vazquez said Tuesday that she and Bailey have been together for seven years. She said they met at a softball game. Vazquez and Bailey got married in Dallas on March 16.

In the suit, Bailey says she was approached by Anderson Elementary principal Sheira Petty a few days after showing the PowerPoint to her class and was told a parent had complained to the school board and Vaszauskas that she was promoting the "homosexual agenda" by talking about her "future wife."

"I don't think you did anything wrong, but I don't know what's going to happen," Petty told Bailey, according to the suit.

Bailey then met with Cantu on Aug. 25 to discuss the parent's complaint. "You can't promote your lifestyle in the classroom," Bailey's suit quotes Cantu as saying.

Bailey told Cantu that she planned to marry Vazquez and that she "should be able to say 'This is my wife' without fear of harassment. When I state that, it is a fact about my life, not a political statement."

The lawsuit says Cantu responded, "Well, right now it kind of is" a political statement.

When Bailey asked about adding LGBTQ protections to the district's anti-discrimination policy to avoid similar incidents, the suit says, Cantu told Bailey she was right and that it was "time to get the ball rolling on that" but that Bailey needed to "realize this is Mansfield and there could be some pushback." Cantu also told Bailey during their meeting that she had done nothing wrong, the suit says.

Bailey then emailed the school board to ask that "it enact policy expressly prohibiting discrimination against lesbians and gays," the suit says.

On Sept. 8, Cantu took Bailey out of her class for a second meeting after the same parent complained a second time, according to the suit.

Cantu allegedly told Bailey the complaint indicated she had shown "sexually inappropriate images to children," but her suit says she had done no such thing. Cantu then asked Bailey to sign documentation saying she would be placed on administrative leave with pay.

Records obtained by The Dallas Morning News show Cantu sent Bailey a letter Sept. 8 notifying her that the district was putting her on leave with pay "until an investigation is completed." The letter gave no reason for her suspension.

"This is discrimination," Bailey told Cantu, according to the suit. "This is wrong and it might even be illegal. I'm not signing it."

In late April, the school board renewed Bailey's teaching contract for the 2018-19 school year. But Bailey's suit says that district officials had requested her resignation last October, and that after renewing her contract, the district had reassigned her to a "secondary school."

Bailey's attorney said the district had not told her where it planned to transfer her. He said that she had made some "preliminary searches" for jobs with other districts but that her administrative leave status made it difficult for her to be an eligible candidate.

"She has found that other districts ask if you've ever been under administrative leave, and it doesn't matter if you've been under administrative leave for a good or bad reason," Smith said. "They ask that and they disqualify people because they've been under administrative leave, so she has got that cloud over her head."

In the past few months, several residents have asked the school board to add protections for LGBT employees to its anti-discrimination policy.

Florence Bruner became emotional at a school board meeting in March as she spoke of how her 10-year-old daughter missed her art teacher. (Steve Hamm / Special Contributor)

On April 24, school board President Raul Gonzalez read a statement saying that the district's anti-discrimination policy would be handled through a policy review committee and that committee assignments would be made after the May election.

Some people have come out against changing the policy and against Bailey. The Tarrant County Republican Party issued a statement in late April urging residents to attend a school board meeting and send emails urging trustees not to change the anti-discrimination policy.

On Tuesday, the Christian advocacy group Texas Values urged the district to "stand for parental rights and not back down."

"This frivolous lawsuit is another sad example of how LGBT advocates put politics over parental rights and indoctrination over education," the group said in a statement.