Former Middle School Dean Who Objected to Book Removals Sues Elizabeth School District

A former middle school administrator in the Elizabeth School District filed a lawsuit Sunday against the rural Colorado district, alleging that she was fired after she objected to the removal of nineteen titles from school libraries last year.

LeEllen Condry, who served as dean of students at Elizabeth Middle School, said she was terminated after three months because she’s “a Black woman who dared to speak out against the discriminatory book ban,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, alleges that the school district violated Condry’s free speech rights and discriminated against her based on race and sex.

Elizabeth Superintendent Dan Snowberger said in an emailed statement Monday, “The district intends to defend itself in court, and the facts will show that the individual’s employment ended because she failed to take the steps to secure the necessary licensure for the position, and because the position was one of several eliminated for cost-saving reasons during a fiscal exigency.”

Condry’s lawsuit is the second filed against the 2,700-student district southeast of Denver relating to the removal of books from school libraries in 2024. Two students, a chapter of the NAACP, and an authors group, all represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, sued the district over the removals a year ago. That lawsuit prompted the district to place pop-up ads on its website inviting visitors to donate to help cover the district’s legal fees.

The controversy over the books, which are back on school library shelves while the ACLU case is pending, began in the fall of 2024 when the district in conservative-leaning Elbert County decided to pull nineteen titles from school libraries because of content school board members deemed inappropriate, overly graphic, or highly sensitive.

The removed books are primarily by or about LGBTQ people, people of color, or both. They include “The Bluest Eye” and “Beloved,” both by Toni Morrison, “The Hate U Give,” by Angie Thomas, and “You Should See Me in a Crown,” by Leah Johnson. All three authors are Black and their books feature Black characters.

In August 2024, the Elizabeth district asked staff to provide “solutions-focused” feedback to the school board about the potential book removals. Condry wrote to the board, saying the removals would be unethical and racist, according to the lawsuit.

On August 27, Snowberger, one of the defendants named in Condry’s suit, wrote in a letter to district employees, “[s]adly, some staff members did seem to misunderstand the request [for feedback] and somehow felt the request was an opening for harsh feedback to the Board on their decision,” according to the lawsuit.

He said feedback that called the actions of the Board “racist” “crossed the lines of professional and ethical behavior,” according to the suit.

Condry was terminated on October 1, 2024, three months into her twelve-month contract with the district.

In response to previous questions from Chalkbeat, Snowberger said by email in February that Condry’s termination was part of a “Reduction in Force involving several staff members and which was compelled by a Fiscal Exigency” — a term for financial problems. At that time, he didn’t mention that Condry failed to take steps to secure the required licensure for her position.

The district’s financial problems, which led to about $500,000 in overspending, were caused by a well failure, a water tower repair, fire alarm fixes, and a large legal settlement, among other things, district officials said at a September 2024 board meeting. The board president said the legal settlement was related to a three-year-old case at Elizabeth High School, but didn’t provide additional details.

To help avert a deficit, the school board cut Condry and several other employees. They included a technology employee, a courier, a maintenance employee, a health tech, and transportation employees, Snowberger said at an October 2024 meeting.

Condry’s lawsuit alleges that the district hired a middle school employee in November 2024 who informally performed the duties that Condry had performed as dean. That employee was officially promoted to the dean position in July 2025, according to the lawsuit

The fact that the school district hired the employee “into the same role that had been occupied by Ms. Condry demonstrates the falsity of its asserted budgetary reasons as a legitimate justification for having fired Ms. Condry,” the lawsuit states.

In January, Condry filed a civil rights complaint over her firing with both the state and federal government. Her lawyer, Andy McNulty, said the complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Colorado Civil Rights Division were the first step before filing a lawsuit. He said by email on Monday that the Colorado Civil Rights Division had issued a “right to sue” notice in Condry’s case.

This story was originally published in Chalkbeat Colorado.