In August of 2017, I moved to Bridgman Michigan after being hired as the FOH Manager of Tapistry Brewing Company in town. While working at Tapistry, I met many locals including folks associated with Bridgman Public Schools. In 2019, I was hired by Haymarket Brewing Company as an assistant brewer and began a new career in the brewing industry. The Head Brewer at Haymarket was one of the most accomplished brewers in the industry and it was a great experience working for him. It would have taken a lot for me to give up my job at Haymarket which is part of my story. In June of 2021, I was asked by someone connected to Bridgman Public Schools if I would be willing to mow the lawns and sports fields voluntarily. The regular groundskeeper was in the process of building a new baseball field and so I agreed to help out. In July, Bridgman Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Sam Stine approached me while I was mowing and asked me about my experience with being an Aquatic Director. My experiences were extensive as I had managed several Country Club pools over the years (part-time), coached swim teams, and taught swim lessons to special needs children along with those who feared the water. In addition, I was an All-American swimmer, All-State in water polo, and I also taught sailing, canoeing, and water skiing for years at a YMCA summer camp. Becoming an Aquatic Director at a High School would have been the only job I would have left the brewing industry for. While at Haymarket in August of 2021, I was approached by Sam Stine and BPS High School Principal Gerald Heath about coming to work at BPS as the Aquatic Director and also as a Substitute Teacher working one-to-one with a student with Autism. I verbally accepted the offer on a handshake, gave my two weeks notice to Haymarket, and began the on-boarding process with EduStaff which is the HR for Substitute Teachers and Para Professionals in Michigan. After everything was approved by EduStaff, my official start date was Monday September 20, 2021. [The week before my start date, I traveled to my hometown of Evanston Illinois to see the Northwestern-Michigan State football game with Sam Stine and his wife, Gerald Heath and his wife, Bridgman Board of Education member Brad Owen along with his wife Molly (who is a secretary for BPS), and Sams' father along with his significant other. The point being is that I was friends with these folks before I came to work for BPS]. On the Friday before my start date, I received a frantic call from Principal Heath notifying me that somehow I wasn't qualified to be a Substitute Teacher and that I would be relegated to being a ParaPro at $10.50 hr. I wasn't bothered by the call as my focus was becoming Aquatic Director which was never mentioned in the conversation. Something happened regarding my being hired by BPS and it would be several months before I would find out what happened. When I agreed to becoming the Aquatic Director at BPS, I was unaware that the Michigan Education Association had a policy that allowed for biological males to participate in female sports and have access to their spaces. Had I known about this policy, I would have never accepted any position at BPS or work at any other Public School. Allowing for biological males to participate in female sports and occupy spaces intended for females goes against my Religious beliefs and I would never have tolerated it. As I would find out several months later from an inside source (who requested anonymity fearing retaliation for good reason), BPS had allowed for a biological male to participate on the Girls Swim/Dive Team the previous school year. I actually knew the student when he was younger and he worked for me at Tapistry Brewing Company after his transition. I had no issue with the student as our bathroom was "one at a time" and I treated him very respectfully. What I was told was that even though the male student had graduated, there was a concern that if another biological male wanted to join the Girls Swim/Dive Team, I wouldn't have tolerated it which is true. Apparently this concern came to light just days before my start date and was the reason I wasn't given the position of Aquatic Director. The failure in this situation was Shane Peters and Sam Stine not having the courage to tell me the truth of what was happening. Had they spoken to me before I started, I would have gladly gone back to working at Haymarket and continued on with a great career. Instead, they gave me the 'silent treatment' for an entire semester hoping that I would just go away quietly. On the evening of December 2, 2021, I received a phone call from Reed Middle School Principal John Truesdell informing me that I was being placed me on paid Administrative Leave pending an investigation of Professional Misconduct. Principal Truesdell would not tell me what I was being accused of and instructed me not to return to BPS until I was notified to do so. There was never an investigation conducted, I was never notified to return to BPS, and a few weeks later BPS would falsely claim to EduStaff that I had quit (self-terminated). Once I realized that I was not going back to BPS, I filed for unemployment and received benefits until I was able to find another job a few months later. Unfortunately it was too late for me to return to Haymarket. Approximately a year later, BPS would protest my unemployment benefits by claiming to the Michigan Department of Labor that I had quit without notice.

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