PROVIDENCE — A former school administrator has filed a whistleblower lawsuit claiming she was fired from her job because she reported too many close contacts after testing positive for COVID-19.
In a civil suit filed in Providence on Jan. 26, Cassandra Johns of Warwick alleges she was terminated from her job as an instructional support leader for following the state, local and school protocols around COVID.
She specifically accuses Olayinke Alege of retaliating against her.
Alege was a high-ranking network administrator who resigned this spring after he was charged with assaulting a boy in a Warwick gym. He has since challenged his arrest.
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The suit names the Rhode Island Department of Education, which has state control over the city’s public schools; state Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green; and interim Schools Supt. Javier Montanez. It also names Providence city Treasurer James J. Lombardi III.
Johns contends the following events took place:
On Nov. 20, 2020, her partner contracted COVID. Johns immediately left Nathan Bishop Middle School and told her direct supervisor, Michael Comella, that she had to quarantine for two weeks. The next day, she began showing symptoms of the virus. She tested positive on Nov. 25.
Donna O’Connor, the district’s head nurse, asked Johns to provide a list of employees who might have been exposed. Johns gave O’Connor her “tracing...
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