Citing violations of her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, a former Torrington school bus driver has sued a local Board of Education member, claiming she lost her job over a Facebook post.

Plaintiff Ashleigh Thibault alleges school board member Molly Spino was so angry about a negative Facebook post during her failed bid for a seat in the state House of Representatives, she ended up getting the author fired.

Thibault was critical of Spino in the 2018 race, and endorsed Democratic opponent Michelle Cook, who featured the post on her Facebook campaign page. Cook ended up winning the 65th District seat 3,661-3,357.

“Unfortunately, Molly will never take the blame of things … much like her children,” according to  a copy of the posting included in the federal lawsuit. “I have bit my tongue for quite sometime now. … Politics in this town are absolutely disgusting. My child was singled out, bullied, talked down to, by her children. She should focus on getting her mess under control before worrying about anything else. You have done a wonderful job thus far Michelle.”

The lawsuit says Thibault's former employer, All-Star Transportation Inc., had a contract with the school board. It maintains that one day after the social media post, Spino telephoned All-Star to complain about the post. Soon after the phone call, the lawsuit says, Spino and an attorney met with a representative of All-Star to complain.

One day after that meeting, the lawsuit says, then-Board of Education business manager Rose Forzano sent a letter to Thibault removing her from all Torrington bus route assignments, which, in effect, meant she was out of a job.

“All-Star terminated the plaintiff from her employment as a consequence of the defendant board's actions,” the lawsuit said.

The defendants in the lawsuit are Spino, Forzano and the Torrington Board of Education.

Reached at the Washington Depot-based Kelly Law Office, where she works as a senior real estate paralegal, Spino told the Connecticut Law Tribune Thursday, “I know nothing about the lawsuit” and declined to comment further.

Forzano, who no longer works for the school district, has an unlisted Connecticut telephone number and could not be reached by press time. And Torrington Schools Superintendent Susan Lubomski did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The lawsuit maintains Thibault “exercised her rights protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments” and was fired as a result, leading her to suffer “injury to her reputation and consequent loss of employment opportunities; and mental and emotional distress.”

The lawsuit, which was brought pursuant to the Civil Rights Act of 1871, seeks Thibault's reinstatement as a bus driver, as well as attorney fees and punitive and compensatory damages.

Representing Thibault is Hartford-based Livingston, Adler, Pulda, Meiklejohn & Kelly attorney Thomas Meiklejohn, who did not respond to a request for comment.