Edward Buckley, Buckley Beal, Atlanta (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

A federal judge has dismissed most of a Cobb County assistant principal's claims that she was transferred to a distant, lower-performing school after some parents complained that her yoga and mindfulness practices were a subterfuge to indoctrinate children into the Buddhist faith.

Judge William Duffey Jr. tossed all but one of Bonnie Cole's constitutional and Title VII claims against the Cobb County School District and superintendent. Cole's complaint said her yoga-based breathing and meditation exercises was initially welcomed by other teachers and Bullard Elementary School officials.  

But that changed when some parents became “increasingly hostile and aggressive,” flooding the Cobb County School District with accusatory emails and staging a prayer rally at her school “for Jesus to rid the school of Buddhism,” followed by an incident when two women stood outside her office “with their hands in her windows, praying.”

Several days after the rally, Cole—a practicing Christian, according to her pleadings—was transferred to a lower-performing school 16 miles farther from her home.

Cole sued the district and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, claiming the district violated Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act by religious-based discrimination and retaliation, as well as the First Amendment's free exercise of religion and establishment clauses.

In a Jan. 18 order, Duffey dismissed the Title VII and free exercise claims and ruled that Ragsdale—who was sued in his individual and official capacities—is protected by qualified immunity.

Duffey ruled that a “plausible establishment claim has been alleged, albeit barely.”

Cole's attorney, Buckley Beal partner Ed Buckley, said he and associate T. Brian Green will  go forward with the remaining claim.

“I think the court has made what was a pretty straightforward proposition complicated,” said Buckley. “When a party imposes a religious belief on another party as part of an adversary action, to me that's a Title VII violation.”

The fact that both Cole and her accusers are Christian is irrelevant, Buckley said.

“If one party says, 'You need to subscribe to my brand of Christianity, and we think your conduct is anathema to my brand,' and the decision-maker acts on those complaints, that's a violation,” he said.

“There are a lot of people in the school system rooting for her,” he added.

There was no immediate response to queries to a representative for the school district or from its attorney, Charles Bachman Jr. of Marietta's Gregory, Doyle, Calhoun & Rogers.

According to filings, Cole began working for the district in 1998 and was promoted to assistant principal at Bullard in 2006.

During to 2014-2015 term, she and several teaches began to offer “breathing and stretching exercises base on yoga and meditation” to reduce stress and encourage relaxation for teachers and students.

During the next school term, the complaint said that fellow church members began to make “religiously-based” complaints to Ragsdale and the school board chairman and that emails to the board falsely accused Cole of leading chants, placing healing stones on students and requiring them to bow to her in the hallway.

Cole also received support from parents, colleagues and educators, but in March 2016 the district announced that it was halting the mindfulness practices. That month, the board “capitulated” to the complaining parents and transferred Cole to Mableton Elementary.   

Cole's complaint noted that many of those complaining held weekly Christian prayer meetings after school programs.

The “humiliating” capitulation and transfer “made clear to the community that religious activities will be allowed as long as they are part of the 'accepted' religion of Christianity as understood and practiced” by Ragsdale and the board, her complaint said.

The district sought to have the case dismissed and, in an order partly adopting the recommendations of U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Baverman, Duffey largely complied.

Cole's Title VII claim for religious discrimination must fail, wrote Duffey, because there was no evidence that the defendants believed she was Buddhist or that she was an “actual or perceived protected religious class of Buddhists.”

Based on that finding, Duffey wrote, Cole's claims for retaliation also failed. She had complained that the board did not protect her from the complaining parents' “wild and baseless accusations” and that the transfer was retaliation for those claims.

But “the community members are not plaintiff's employer for purposes of Title VII,” he said, and there is no evidence that she opposed an unlawful employment practice or even lodged a complaint about her transfer “before or after it occurred.”  

Her First Amendment free exercise claim was also dismissed, as Cole “plainly admits that she is a practicing Christian, and that she did not believe that the practices she was teaching were 'religious or based in religion.' Circuit precedent dictates that plaintiff cannot plausibly state a claim under the Free Exercise Clause without having a 'sincerely held religious belief' burdened.”

As to Ragsdale, there was no evidence that his behavior was outside the bounds of qualified immunity or “unlawful under the circumstances,” Duffey wrote. He did, however, say that her municipal liability claims against the board were “minimally sufficient, at this stage,” to survive.

Duffey ruled that Cole's establishment clause claim could remain but mainly because the defense had not cited sufficient legal authority to oppose it.

The defense had argued that there was no board policy that “constituted an establishment of one religion over another” and that Cole had admitted that her activities were not religious in any case.

But the defendants “do not submit any legal authority and only one paragraph to support their motion,” wrote Duffey, agreeing with Baverman that the issue was not properly before the court at this point.