Teacher's Aide Says She Was Fired for Reporting Third-Grader With Drugs

March 9, 2010— -- A special-education aide at a Clawson, Mich., elementary school has sued her former employer, claiming that she was unjustly terminated last year for reporting school violations, including an alleged drug-dealing operation run by a third-grader.

Janine Fisher-Ethier filed the lawsuit last month against Clawson Public Schools, co-worker Scott Just and Schalm Elementary School principal Patricia Pell in Oakland County Court.

They were served last week with the lawsuit, which the school district said is meritless.

According to the lawsuit filed Feb. 16, 2010, however, the "defendants terminated [Fisher-Ethier's] employment and otherwise retaliated against her because she had reported violations or suspected violations of laws."

Fisher-Ethier, 48, first became aware that a student was allegedly dealing drugs to other students on Schalm Elementary School property around April 2008, according to the complaint.

"The students were telling me that he was selling them for a certain amount of money and then I started to find them," Fisher-Ethier said in an interview. "I used to be an EMT so I knew to take the coding off the pills. I came home, ran the codes on the computer, and found out they were amphetamines."

The pills were found by several people at the school, including kindergarten students and a school secretary, she said.

"One girl found a tissue with pills in it in her desk," Fisher-Ethier said. "She said to me, 'This isn't mine, what do I do with it?' I told her to take it down to the bathroom and flush it."

The drug problem at the school was no secret, she said.

"There was a lot of shenanigans in the bathroom," Fisher-Ethier said. "We had ceiling tiles getting popped, money was being left. They were leaving pills in the toilet-paper dispensers."

Fisher-Ethier of Clawson spotted the suspected student in April 2008 attempting to enter an after-school program that he was not authorized to attend, according to the lawsuit.

She informed a "latchkey" supervisor of his alleged drug dealing and instructed her to prohibit the student from entering.

Within a week, Fisher-Ethier was reprimanded by principal Pell in front of her union president, according to the complaint.

"That's the day she told me if I didn't shut my mouth and walk away, she would fire me," Fisher-Ethier said.

Pell, she said, turned a blind eye to the ongoing problem and, according to the complaint, Fisher-Ethier was instructed do the same if she saw any more pills.

Pell placed a letter in Fisher-Ethier's file the next day, threatening termination for any future "breech [sic] of confidentiality."

In the letter, dated April 14, 2008, Pell wrote, "... on more than one occasion, you have overstepped your authority and shared confidential information with others. You have chosen to share information that has not been substantiated, thereby putting the reputation of yourself and students at risk.