BREWER, Maine — The former senior aerospace instructor for Brewer High School’s Air Force Junior ROTC program says his contract was not renewed in retaliation for a bad review he gave a noncommissioned officer and because he displayed his child’s artwork with the word “Jesus” at school.
“I have recently filed a complaint through the Maine Human Rights Commission and the EEOC on [grounds of] retaliation and religious discrimination,” Retired Lt. Col. Jay Winslow said recently while sitting in his kitchen with his wife, Cassie, and friend Will O’Shea, a retired chief warrant officer from San Diego.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Maine Human Rights Commission complaints against the Brewer School Department were filed or mailed Aug. 8, he said. Winslow provided a link to his Human Rights Commission complaint but did not have a copy of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint that he mailed in which he claiming both religious discrimination and retaliation.
Due to confidentiality laws, neither agency could confirm that complaints have been filed.
The Bangor Daily News also filed a Freedom of Access request for all 2016 Brewer School Department or Brewer School Committee communications, including but not limited to letters, emails, texts and videos, regarding Winslow on July 11. The school department denied the request saying all the requested information was part of Winslow’s personnel file and could not be released.
Winslow said Brewer School Superintendent Cheri Towle asked him to remove a 4-inch by 6-inch piece of homemade artwork made by his daughter that spelled out the word “Jesus,” featuring a candy cane as the “J.”
“That was on my personal space at my desk,” Winslow said.
Winslow said the school department also claimed he conducted Friday night Bible studies at his house, which he said is true, but he denied allegations that he involved students through the junior Air Force program. One JROTC student, who reportedly was involved, and his father stood up at the July school board meeting to inform the panel that the accusation was not true.
“I want my name cleared,” Winslow said. “My name has already been cleared by the Air Force.”
Winslow, who came to Brewer in 2013 after leading the ROTC program at Oklahoma State University, was sent a termination letter July 7 that said his last day was to be Aug. 31. When he requested his personnel file, he was informed that July 7 was actually his last day, Winslow said after the July 11 school meeting where students, parents, friends and a former school board member spoke in support of his continued employment.
His human rights complaint states that when the superintendent was hired in October 2015, “She became very close with my assistant” and retaliated against Winslow when he reported that his assistant, retired Senior Master Sgt. Anthony Campbell, the aerospace science instructor for Brewer high, had violated Air Force rules.
Campbell failed to follow the unit’s chain of command, sanctioned “the deterioration of a professional working relationship” with Winslow, and left cadets alone for hours at a March 25 fundraiser, according to a reprimand from Col. Bobby Woods Jr. of the Department of the Air Force University.
“The Air Force put my assistant on probation in June 2016 after I completed his evaluation,” Winslow wrote in his Human Rights Commission complaint. “Within 2 weeks, I was informed [by the Brewer school system] that my contract would not be renewed. Additionally, the superintendent caused my JROTC teaching certification to be removed (I have since rectified this).”
Towle’s actions to remove his JROTC teaching certificate would have “prohibited me from ever teaching at another high school,” Winslow said.
He appealed to the Air Force, which reinstated his teaching certificate and encouraged him to get another teaching job, but denied his request to have Towle’s most recent evaluation of him removed from his file.
“I had a flawless 21-year career and she destroyed it,” Winslow said, referring to the school superintendent. “It’s a travesty that this could happen in a place like this. This is just unjustified.”
Towle said during the July school board meeting that she could not talk specifically about Winslow but added that decisions about who is hired or fired “are made based on what is best for our students and our programs.”
She recently declined a request from the BDN to discuss Winslow’s allegations.
“I cannot comment on this matter,” Towle said.
On Friday, Campbell answered the phone in the JROTC classroom, and he said he still was on probation.
“I have to cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s … to make sure whatever happened doesn’t happen again,” Campbell said, declining to talk about why he was placed on probation.
“I can’t talk about that,” he said.
According to Woods’ reprimand of Campbell, however, the instructor put the safety of students in jeopardy by leaving them alone for hours during an outing.
“What I find most disturbing is the fact that you intentionally left your cadets unsupervised at a fundraiser car wash when it was your responsibility to monitor their health and safety,” Woods said in the document.
Campbell’s probation ends in December when another review will be completed by the school’s principal, David Wall, and the new senior aerospace instructor. If the review contains any rating of “needs improvement,” Campbell will be considered for immediate decertification, according to Woods.
Winslow said he had previously received two written reprimands, one from Towle and one directed by her, for giving a student a ride home from a JROTC outing at Hampden Academy and for a student injury that occurred during drill practice outside that he was supervising from his desk inside the high school.
But in an email exchange between Winslow and the school’s union representative about their end of the year meeting with Towle, provided to the Bangor Daily News by Winslow, 10 complaints are mentioned.
“It was a rehash of the same 10 complaints she hit me with in March,” Winslow states in the email.
Winslow explained that most of Towle’s complaints are simple misunderstandings, such as when a student started to talk to him as he walked over to Hannaford supermarket to get lunch.
“I was accused of taking that kid out to lunch,” Winslow said, indicating that would have violated school policy.
“That is an example of how ridiculous all this is,” his wife, Cassie Winslow, said. “What is this, third grade?”
She added that, “He was followed by a parent over to Super Cuts. He was accused of getting haircuts while at work. He was getting his hair cut on his lunch break.”
O’Shea, Winslow’s retired Air Force friend from California who came to Maine to speak on his friend’s behalf at the July school board meeting, said he was outraged by the actions of the school department.
“I looked into this and I started to see a very clear pattern of harassment against him — targeted harassment,” O’Shea said.
Cassie Winslow said the situation has been very hard on the family. Their house is on the market, and the family is planning to move.
“The stress on our family has been unbearable to the point I had a stress-induced heart attack,” Winslow said. “That is the impact that this woman has had on our family.”
The Brewer program, one of two Air Force JROTC programs in the state, started in 2007. Brewer High was in jeopardy of losing its JROTC program until Winslow took over the program. Within a year the school was ranked in the top 2 percent of the country by the national program, partly because Winslow and Campbell created a flight simulator course that attracted students and helped save the program by upping enrollment.
JROTC programs must maintain a population of 10 percent of the school’s student enrollment to remain in good standing. When 16 students signed up for the flight simulator class in early 2014, the additional enrollment brought the number of JROTC members in Brewer to 78, which brought the program into compliance.
Winslow also was named outstanding instructor of the year for the Air Force JROTC program for the 2014-15 school year.
It’s apparent from copies of March 25 emails between Towle and Winslow, again provided by Winslow, that the two JROTC leaders later had a hard time working together, which had a clear impact on the students.
“Ms Towle, I just wanted to quickly follow-up on our conversation yesterday and provide some amplification to the memo you provided me,” Winslow wrote. “I noticed many references to myself and Sgt Campbell as being co-commanders of the AFJROTC program. I’m not sure where the confusion has come from that has contributed to the misconception regarding my role (a SASI) and Sgt Campbell’s role (an ASI).”
He then provides the job description for both posts, which clearly state that the aerospace science instructor answers to and supports the senior aerospace instructor.
Towle responds back that, “This is interesting information,” however, “From the school’s perspective though, you are both teachers.”
She goes on to state, “I think this is the route of the problem as your co-worker feels disrespected and not valued by you. He has worked hard and is very respected to build the program as well. I think if the two of you can work together regardless of the Air Force job descriptions, and the students can see this, I would appreciate it, as well as the parents and your cadets.”
Brewer hired Winslow’s replacement Aug. 15., and Campbell remains as the school’s aerospace science instructor.
“There is a cultural and systemic problem here in Brewer,” Winslow said. “We would like the Air Force to investigate the root of the problem.”