After more than a year of looking into a whistleblower complaint, an independent investigation concluded the School District of Lee County’s communication department did not violate the law and found no evidence to confirm the whistleblower’s allegations.
District documents show the whistleblower was an employee in the Lee Schools Communications Department when the complaint was filed on Feb. 23, 2022. It claimed they were being asked to perform duties outside the scope of their job, subjected to a hostile work environment, asked to spy on the public using district resources via social media, made fun of by at least one superior, fielded calls from upset parents without adequate resources and that public resources were deliberately slowed down for certain requestors.
WINK News first reported on the issues in March 2022, when multiple Lee County School Board members expressed concern, worried that the communications department was crossing the line with inappropriate conduct.
The independent investigation, which was performed by Wright Mediation Inc. of Fort Myers, was completed in September 2022. However, a rebuttal to the investigation was also filed by the whistleblower. A final memorandum to file was not signed by district staff until April 21, 2023.
The eight-page report found “no evidence to support any violations of law or the whistleblower’s allegations.”
The conclusion also found “several instances wherein situations regarding the whistleblower should have been...
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