A former high school principal in Weld County this week filed a federal lawsuit against the RE-5J school district claiming he was fired because of his Christianity.
Brian Littlefield, a former principal at Roosevelt High School in Johnstown, was fired in 2021 after he spoke to a group of Christian athletes, off of school grounds and with no connection to Roosevelt, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver.
The lawsuit names the school district, former district Superintendent Leslie Arnold and Cara Anderson, a former assistant superintendent of human resources, as respondents.
Littlefield is described in the lawsuit as a “pious Christian male who lives his life through the teachings of Jesus Christ.” The former principal “never brought the teachings of Christianity into school nor in his capacity as a school administrator,” the lawsuit says.
On Feb. 25, 2021, Littlefield addressed members of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Arnold became aware of his “faith-based speech that had no connection to school,” according to the lawsuit. Shortly afterward, Arnold downgraded Littlefield’s performance evaluation, “threatening corrective action,” and he was called into a meeting with Arnold and Anderson, according to the lawsuit.
Littlefield then filed a complaint with the district, claiming, in part, “religious and gender discrimination.”
Ninety days after Littlefield’s complaint against the district, he was fired, in June of 2021, at the behest of Anderson, the lawsuit alleges.
His firing and the actions of the respondents violate Littlefield’s First Amendment rights, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and rights under Colorado law, according to the lawsuit.
As a teacher and athletic coach, Littlefield was a sponsor of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He serves as a deacon at his church and was a director of a youth Christian Sunday School. Littlefield spoke to the group as a church member, “religious mentor and devoted Christian,” and not as a principal or school administrator, the lawsuit said.
In a three-hour meeting on March 1, 2021, with Arnold, Anderson and other school administrators, Littlefield was “subjected to numerous false allegations ranging from him being homophobic — which was and is untrue — to accusing him of struggling” with Arnold — also untrue — because she was female, according to the lawsuit.
A day after the meeting, Littlefield filed a complaint against Arnold and Anderson with Board of Education President Michael Wailes. On March 6, 2021, Arnold and Anderson filed a complaint against Littlefield, claiming he made an inappropriate response to race issues, derogatory comments against LGBTQ people and that he engaged in gender inequity, among other claims.
Earlier this year, on May 2, Arnold too filed a federal lawsuit, also in Denver, against the Weld County School District RE-5J, naming Wailes and the school board as respondents, after she was fired on May 19, 2021.
Arnold’s lawsuit claims she was fired when the school board rallied in defense of Littlefield, after she sought to have him outed based on his alleged racist and homophobic behavior.
Littlefield, who was the subject of a third-party investigation in 2021 after several parents and staff complained about his behavior, was not named as a respondent in Arnold’s lawsuit.
The school district hired the third-party investigator to look into the claims against both Littlefield and Arnold. The investigation substantiated the complaints against Littlefield but found his allegation that he was discriminated against to be unfounded, according to Arnold’s lawsuit.
Arnold advocated for Littlefield’s firing after that investigation, but the school board instead decided to give Littlefield a warning and allow him to finish the school year as principal. He was out of the job by June 2021, the Greeley Tribune reported.
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