05/09/2014
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Rosemary Bernal said she was demoted from her job at the La Joya Independent School District after 13 years on the job as an inventory clerk.
"I felt humiliated, I felt very ashamed because I didn’t do anything wrong," she said.
It happened back in November 2012 following a school board election.
That year Bernal was very active in her support for Team Bus.
"It was people that I knew that I wanted to support and people that I knew could do the job in the school district," Bernal said.
Her team lost and soon after, she said the winning political party, Team Liberty, began re-assigning employees who went against them.
"I supported Team Bus and now I'm paying for it," Felipe de Angel said.
De Angel said he was demoted twice following the 2012 election resulting in an $11,000 pay cut.
Now a total of 19 former and current school district employees are suing La Joya ISD and Team Liberty members.
"This has to stop," De Angel said. "We live in the United States not Mexico. We can chose whichever party we want."
District spokesperson Eden Ramirez said the re-assignments were anything but political.
"It's a policy," he said. "We don't discriminate against anyone on the basis of either politics, sex, age or anything."
He said any demotions made are in the best interest of the school district and the students and could also be the result of budget cuts.
"As the year goes by we do restructure departments," Ramirez said. "We lose grant money which we use to hire certain positions."
But the 19 plaintiffs think the re-assignments are the result of political retaliation.
They said they are taking a stand hoping to expose the alleged corruption in the school district they love.
"I just want to be free of retaliation against me because of who I chose to vote for," Bernal said.
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