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The vociferously anti-LGBTQ superintendent of a Virginia public school district claims he was fired not for a lack of qualifications or his bigoted online activity, but for joining with former child star-turned-ultra-conservative evangelical activist Kirk Cameron in a campaign to sideline secular children’s titles by Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books, in favor of Christian-themed books that “reinforce biblically-based, foundational values.”
Ousted Spotsylvania County Public Schools Superintendent Mark Taylor partnered with the crusading Cameron last year to put on a book fair featuring works by publishing house Brave Books, which aims to “empower your children against woke culture.”
Brave has released children’s books by, among others, conspiracy theorist and convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza, disgraced US Army general and QAnon acolyte Michael Flynn, former NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch and Cameron himself.
Taylor had no education experience before he was hired in 2022, over the objections of many — including his own daughter — at a base salary of $245,000. He was terminated for cause in March 2024, but the specific reasons for his firing were hashed out behind closed doors and never fully revealed. (Taylor was already under fire for posting racist and homophobic material on his social media feeds, which he speculated, disingenously, could have been hacked.)
However, in a newly filed wrongful termination lawsuit obtained by The Independent, Taylor insists it was his association with Cameron that ultimately did him in.
In fact, the lawsuit reveals, the Spotsylvania County Public School Board considered Taylor’s overall conduct so egregious, it called into question “his ability to serve as a School Superintendent in any school system in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Attorney Thomas Strelka, who is representing Taylor, told The Independent that the dispute is “primarily a First Amendment retaliation case,” saying, “American public school employees can fall victim to unconstitutional retaliation due to the overcharged politicized environment.”
A spokesperson for Spotsylvania County Public Schools did not immediately respond on Monday to a request for comment.
Scholastic, a venerable public company worth more than $1 billion, has become a flashpoint in the culture wars currently roiling America. Among Scholastic titles that have come under fire by the religious right: a biography of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a book about civil rights activist Ruby Bridges and a collection of works by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman.
“It is unsettling that the current divisive landscape in the U.S. is creating an environment that could deny any child access to books, or that teachers could be penalized for creating access to all stories for their students,” the company said in a statement last fall.
On December 2, 2023, Taylor, who several months earlier had yanked 14 books he deemed “sexually explicit” from Spotsylvania public schools, including two titles by Pulitzer Prize-winner Toni Morrison, sponsored a book fair with Cameron at Riverbend High School in Spotsylvania County, one of the institutions under his official purview, his lawsuit states.
“The theme of the book fair was to showcase literature that had been endorsed by conservative Christian authors and critics,” Taylor’s lawsuit goes on. “The books available at the book fair were marketed by Mr. Taylor as an alternative to literature that Mr. Taylor and other conservative Christian-minded individuals considered obscene pursuant to their religious beliefs.”
Taylor organized and paid for the event, hosted by SkyTree Book Fairs, which bills itself as a “school-choice alternative to the sexually explicit content distributed in Scholastic’s book fairs,” according to the suit.
“We all grew up with Scholastic, everyone, as the publisher of these great books, and Clifford the Big Red Dog and Stuart Little and James and The Giant Peach and all the fun little crossword puzzles,” Cameron told the Christian Broadcasting Network in an April interview. “Well, their book fairs are now filled with the kind of progressive, socialist Marxist material that is undermining God, family, and the country.”
Taylor argues that the Spotsylvania County Public School Board “permits members of the public to reserve and use school property for events such as book fairs,” and that he was acting “as a private citizen and never used his position as Superintendent to organize the book fair.”
The books on display were “marketed by Mr. Taylor as an alternative to literature that Mr. Taylor and other conservative Christian-minded individuals considered obscene pursuant to their religious beliefs,” the lawsuit continues, calling the book fair itself “an expression of Mr. Taylor’s first amendment rights.”
Cameron was there to emphasize “the need to disseminate Christian literature,” which Taylor echoed as “a matter of public concern,” the lawsuit states. It acknowledges the media coverage of the fair, and goes on to claim that Taylor’s association with Cameron, Brave Books, and SkyTree “angered the Board.”
On January 22, 2024, Taylor’s suit contends he was suddenly placed on administrative leave “without warning.”
“This letter is to inform you that Spotsylvania County School Board believes it has sufficient cause to terminate your employment with Spotsylvania County Public Schools with cause,” Taylor was told, according to an exhibit filed along with his lawsuit.
A subsequent separation agreement listed a number of reasons for Taylor’s firing, such as his hiring of “several unlicensed and unqualified employees in violation of state law and school division policy,” whom he allegedly failed to properly supervise and evaluate, improperly disposing of school property “on several occasions,” and “numerous documented offensive and inappropriate social media posts on various social media platforms that the Board believes may bring into question his ability to serve as a School Superintendent in any school system in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
In his lawsuit, Taylor argues the issues were “false and fabricated,” and constituted “retaliation” for his activities with Cameron. He claims the board breached his employment contract, and says he “has suffered and will continue to suffer compensatory damages, emotional distress, and other significant financial and personal harm, due to the retaliation committed by the Board.”
Taylor is asking for an unspecified amount in back pay, front pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney’s fees.
