LUBEC, Maine — The local school board voted unanimously Thursday night to deny a grievance filed by a teacher who had been accused of assaulting the former Washington County sheriff last fall.
Deborah Bousquet, a teacher at Lubec Consolidated School for 17 years, had been suspended from her job for 10 weeks — two of them without pay — after being arrested on criminal charges in connection with a roadside incident with then-Sheriff Donnie Smith last October. At the time, Smith said he had been hit on the head by Bousquet after he went to the scene of an incident on a school bus that had stopped by the side of Route 189.
Charges against Bousquet later were dropped by the district attorney. Bousquet said Thursday that she filed the grievance, appealing her suspension, because the charges had been dropped. She said she wanted the two weeks’ pay that had been withheld and the suspension stricken from her employment record.
The school board met Thursday night at the the local elementary school with AOS 77 Superintendent James Underwood, school board attorney Elec Miller, Bousquet and her attorney, Jeff Davidson of East Machias, to consider Bousquet’s appeal. After meeting for about two hours, in both public and then executive session, the board voted 5-0 to deny the grievance, effectively denying Bousquet’s appeal.
Bousquet had informed the board in writing that she wanted the hearing to be held in public session. The hearing was open to the public for about a half-hour, with about a dozen of Bousquet’s supporters in attendance, but then was moved into executive session after the discussion started to include allegations against other school department employees.
After the school board’s vote to deny Bousquet’s grievance, Underwood and Melissa Mallock-Farren, chairwoman of the Lubec School Committee, each declined to comment on the matter. Bousquet and Davidson departed without comment.
In the October incident last fall, Bousquet and Smith each went to Route 189 where a school bus driver had stopped on the side of the road and then called police to report — inaccurately, it turned out — that a fight had broken out on the bus. Bousquet had been contacted by her daughter who was on the bus, and Smith, who lives in Lubec, had been contacted by dispatchers.
After Bousquet and Smith each arrived, they got into an altercation and accused each other of exacerbating the situation. Smith placed Bousquet under arrest and took her to the jail in Machias.
Despite Smith’s claims of assault, Bousquet initially was charged by prosecutors with disorderly conduct and obstruction of government administration. Last month, new District Attorney Matthew Foster dropped the charges against Bousquet after determining there was not enough evidence to prosecute the case.
Bousquet’s suspension is not the first employment-related dispute she has had with Underwood. Last June, the superintendent decided not to renew Bousquet’s appointment as the school’s athletic director, a position she held for two years.
About three dozen parents and their children held an impromptu meeting with Underwood on June 24 to protest the decision. According to Bousquet, the superintendent later changed his mind after no other teachers would accept the position.
While the board was deliberating in a classroom in executive session, Bousquet said in a school hallway that Underwood later removed her as the school’s athletic director after the bus incident.
Last month, Smith and Bousquet were involved in another confrontation — one that resulted in criminal charges against Smith, according to court documents.
On Jan. 6, Smith and Bousquet were involved in a driving incident, in which Smith “did recklessly create a substantial risk of serious bodily injury” to Bousquet and that he “did, with criminal negligence, drive a vehicle … in a manner that endangered the property of another or a person, including the operator or passenger in the motor vehicle being driven,” according to charging documents filed in the court clerk’s office in Machias.
Smith has pleaded innocent to the charges, court documents indicate. Recent attempts to contact Smith and his attorney, Don Brown of Brewer, have been unsuccessful.
In a hallway interview, Bousquet said Thursday that she was driving her car behind Smith’s truck on Route 189 when he twice stopped suddenly, nearly causing an accident each time. She said that after stopping his truck the second time, he got out and started yelling at her.
“I didn’t know it was him” before he got out of his truck, Bousquet said. “It was kind of scary.”
Bousquet said that before the bus incident last October, she did not have much contact with Smith and did not know him that well. She said she did have contact with him before the incident because he and his then-wife used to have dinner on Friday nights at Frank’s Dockside restaurant in Lubec, where Bousquet was a server.
“Ten dollars is a pretty good tip,” she said, recalling a tip Smith had left her.
Since the bus incident last October, Bousquet has notified Smith of her intent to file a civil lawsuit against him, alleging that with her arrest he falsely imprisoned her, assaulted her and used excessive force. Bousquet has yet to follow through and file a civil complaint against Smith at the court clerk’s office in Machias. Davidson said Thursday that he and Bousquet hope the issue can be resolved out of court.
In November, Smith was defeated in his re-election bid as sheriff, losing to Barry Curtis of Cherryfield by more than 2,000 votes out of about 13,600 cast.
