Head Start Director Fails to Persuade Courts that Mold and Fraud Accusations Led to Firing

NEW ORLEANS — The director of a school district’s Head Start preschool program, whose reports of mold and poor air quality were found by a state court jury to have been made in bad faith, cannot rely on those same allegations in pursuing a whistleblower claim against her school district as part of a federal court suit, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed.

The Circuit Court also noted in its Jan. 18 opinion that to the extent her whistleblower claim was identical to the claim raised in state court, it was barred by res judicata.

Doreatha Walker …