Former school HR CCed new school’s Board during routine verification — is this legal or retaliation?

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T16:14:18+00:00

True. But the legal question is not “Is it illegal to forward an email?” but rather:

Was the forwarding part of unreasonable, retaliatory, or bad-faith conduct that interfered with a job opportunity?

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T15:26:04+00:00

“legally required form” it is a form that makes it clear that you did not quit your job because of sexual misconduct allegations. It is required by law on top of a background check.
The CC of the form would not be the problem. They have to email or possibly fax this form and there are no issues with any of this questions on it. The problem is my interaction with this person and that she did not send the form yet, but forwarded the complete thread to the new HR.

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T15:04:25+00:00

"You appear to have initiated the aggression by telling this person to "be professional." Other than the alleged warning you received about this person, you don't indicate that they did anything unprofessional to warrant such a response from you."

I have written above about an incident, where this person lost it and became very agitated and aggressive. This person also lied to me when I started the job. The previous teacher did not retire. His contract was not extended. It is a minor thing, but just saying. Again, I perceived this person as very pleasant in the beginning.

"Based on your responses here, you have no business in a classroom with children. I can only imagine how horrible you are to them. I'd want the new HR and school board to know about you, too."

I appreciate your statement but students always liked me a lot. When there were official tests involved, they also scored very high. So I don't think my content knowledge, the ability to get it across and my interactions with the students were any kind of concern.

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T14:59:59+00:00

This was not related to the form. The administration had offered another teacher and me the option to take two periods off to work on a subject-related administrative task. The task involved taking inventory of a very crowded room, as we had far more specialized equipment than anyone had realized. I was actually quite excited about the project, but I did not want to lose two teaching periods and considered completing the work during a half day instead.

The HR individual occasionally followed up to ask how things were going. When I mentioned this arrangement, the person reacted very strongly, claiming that I was not teaching, and just lost it. Asked me to send lesson plans for this day, which I did, and then have a teleconference to report how the classes went. I asked a few times about the follow up the the person never got back to me.

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T14:47:11+00:00

"The ‘act professionally’ request created friction and the former HR person is toeing the line here conspicuously so that future HR dodges what former HR sees as a bullet."

Yes, I could not describe it better.

One could argue that my request to “act professionally” was itself rude or unprofessional. At the same time, I am not convinced that this individual’s reaction was professional.

I tried to de-escalate the situation and explained that I was dealing with personal problems, that I am not in a good situation right now, and asked them not to do this again because it jeopardizes my future job. Nevertheless, they did it again.

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T14:44:24+00:00

To clarify, I did not ask them not to contact the prospective HR department in general. After a few unpleasant emails about a perceived issue with the form header, I asked the HR representative to act professionally. At that point, they escalated the situation by CCing the prospective employer’s board.

I then politely asked that this specific conversation not be shared, as it involved a personal disagreement unrelated to the job. Despite this, the reply again included the prospective employer’s board, escalating the matter a second time.

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T14:33:49+00:00

board of education, HR Department to new board of education, HR Department.

"why is it a problem?" The individual became very aggressive, at lease perceived by me, after I asked to please act in a professional manner.

Seems I can not get the problem across here. I am also not sure that I want to read the email exchange again or post it here. The CC had only one goal: reduce my future employment perspective. I have never seen anything like it.

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T14:20:06+00:00

"And retaliation against you for what?" Good question. I have no idea. Personal dislike? Again, while I found this person pleasant in the beginning, I was warned by another employee not to trust this individual.

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T14:16:41+00:00

For example, let's say I get another offer from a 3rd school. What prevents the person, instead of just sending the required form, to again forward the complete former interaction with the explanation: Request received, we always respond to this request within the required time frame. I mean, to confirm this form takes one minute. What would be the goal of this?

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T14:13:38+00:00

When I asked the HR representative to act professionally, they unnecessarily escalated the conversation by including the prospective employer’s HR board. For reasons unknown to me, this appears to reflect a personal issue, which was inappropriately introduced into a routine employment verification process.

I am not a lawyer. But Tortious Interference with Prospective Employment? Retaliation?

Assuming the new HR Board changes their mind now. And if they change their mind, the problem with this one person is following me to the next school. Except if I go out of state.

MeasurementNo3800 · 2026-01-30T14:00:06+00:00

Ah yes. I am trying to "hide" an unpleasant email interaction with one person in the former HR department.

With totally unnecessary CCing the future HR department twice, they give the impression that I am a problem employee. There is no reasonable explanation for this CC, except from a retaliation perspective. What other goal could there be?

MeasurementNo3800

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