Antioch Unified School District Maintenance Director Ken Turnage has filed a civil complaint against the school district, board of trustees, the board president and the district’s human resources director.
The lawsuit, filed in February, accuses the school district of wrongfully suspending him. He also alleges invasion defamation, invasion of privacy and retaliation.
School officials placed Turnage on administrative leave last May and then on unpaid leave months later, according to school officials, after he was accused of bullying several of his employees. According to internal investigation reports, in January 2023 Turnage directed other employees to use a forklift to place a worker’s desk on a roof of a school building.
That worker told NBC Bay Area this occurred shortly after he and Turnage had an argument and the desk on the roof was done to punish and publicly humiliate him.
After NBC Bay Area reported on the case, the school district launched additional investigations. Reports from five of those investigations into various bullying claims against Turnage found him to be profane, inappropriate, and physically threatening towards some of his workers.
AUSD’s superintendent at the time, Stephanie Anello, also lost her job after facing accusations she ignored bullying complaints against Turnage because they are friends. Anello has not responded to NBC Bay Area’s repeated requests for comments about the claims.
On Monday, through his attorney, Turnage sent a written statement to NBC Bay Area about the recent filing of his legal complaint against the school district:
After much consideration, and with heavy heart, I was compelled to file a lawsuit against my employer, Antioch Unified School District, Antioch School Board of Trustees, and against Board President Antonio Hernandez and now former Interim Superintendent and Director of Human Resources Dr. Rob Martinez. The “Doe” defendants will be named as more information is revealed. My intentions in filing this lawsuit are to reveal the actual truth about my tenure with Antioch Unified School District, where last year's media fiasco, encouraged and fueled by the School Board and District personnel, grotesquely and falsely portrayed those facts to malign my character and professional reputation. I am hopeful that the court system will provide an objective and fair process to correct these wrongs and set the record straight. - Respectfully, Kenneth R. Turnage II
Hernandez said he has no comment on the filed legal complaint. NBC Bay Area reached out to Martinez and the school district but has not received a response.
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