PITTSBURGH – A teacher has alleged that three Pennsylvania school districts have violated the Criminal History Record Information Act, by denying his application to work as a substitute teacher on the basis of a groundless arrest on his record from 55 years ago.
Anthony Gaglierd of Pittsburgh filed suits in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on Dec. 16 versus Avonworth School District and Northgate School District of Pittsburgh, plus Deer Lakes School District of Cheswick.
“In January of 2020, Mr. Gaglierd applied for an available substitute teacher position in the Avonworth School District through the district’s placement agent, Education Staffing Solutions,” the suit states.
“On or around March 12, 2020, ESS notified Mr. Gaglierd that Avonworth had denied his application to fill their vacant substitute teacher position. The basis given for this denial was the results of his arrest and conviction record.”
On Feb. 12, 1965, Gaglierd was driving and returned to his home, where his neighbor, an off-duty police officer, objected to the volume level of Gaglierd’s car radio. The neighbor then came to Gaglierd’s home to confront him about the issue, and allegedly accosted the plaintiff’s mother.
“Gaglierd heard the commotion, found the neighbor harassing his mother, told him that if there was an issue, the neighbor should address it with him, and demanded that the neighbor leave their property, as he was trespassing,” the suits say.
“Unbeknownst to Gaglierd, the neighbor happened to be a police officer, who was not on duty, and decided that he was going to arrest Mr. Gaglierd for assaulting a police officer despite the fact that Mr. Gaglierd had not assaulted him and the neighbor was a trespasser.”
The suits explain that during the unwarranted arrest, a pocket knife was found in Gaglierd’s pocket, at which time the neighbor then decided to arrest him on allegations of attempted homicide and concealing a deadly weapon.
“Due to the obvious bogusness of these allegations, no charges were pursued against Gaglierd. Gaglierd was not convicted, did not plead guilty, and there was and never will be any shred of evidence that Gaglierd did any of the things that he was accused of by this neighbor who abused his authority as a police officer,” per the suits.
“When [the districts] received the applications and saw the reference to the incident, an obvious discrepancy existed, as Gaglierd has had decades of educational experience since this incident. However, [the districts] did no investigation into the matter, and summarily dismissed his application.”
The suits say the districts violated the Criminal History Record Information Act through denying Gaglierd’s application, as the prior arrest did not relate to his job duties as a teacher.
“Gaglierd’s prior arrest did not relate to his ability to perform his job duties. He was an excellent teacher prior to the background check with years of experience. Gaglierd’s arrest did not impact his job abilities prior to the background check and they would not impact his abilities after the results of the background check,” the suits say.
“Gaglierd’s arrest was from over 50 years ago and he has not had any other arrests since then. Gaglierd was certainly qualified for the position as he had worked as a teacher and never had any issue maintaining employment in this field.”
For counts of violations of the Criminal History Record Information Act and public policy violations, the plaintiff is seeking all damages available at equity and at law in the form of lost wages, front pay, and compensatory damages, which constitute his real and actual damages, punitive damages as allowed by 18 Pa. C.S. Section 9183, court costs, as well as any appropriate attorney’s fees and other costs.
The plaintiff is represented by Prabhu Narahari of Rupert Manes Narahari, in Pittsburgh.
The defendants have not yet secured legal counsel.
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas cases GD-20-012681, GD-20-012683 & GD-20-012684
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com