CMU graduate and former Grand Junction High School (GJHS) D51 physical education teacher who coached basketball Sydni Brandon has filed a lawsuit against District 51 (D51), alleging “unlawful termination” based on discrimination against “her race, gender and sexual orientation.”
The complaint was filed on Sept. 24. D51, GJHS Principal Jory Sorrenson and GJHS Vice Principal Josh Warriner are named as defendants in the case.
Brandon moved to Grand Junction when she was seven years old and graduated from GJHS in 2015. In 2019, she graduated from CMU with her bachelor’s in sports management and then went on to get her master’s in the same field from CMU in 2020. She was also a student athlete on the women’s basketball team during her undergrad.
While on the basketball team at CMU, Brandon said she felt accepted and supported for who she was. She attributed that to the safe and welcoming environment that the coaches Taylor Wagner and Hannah Pollart fostered for the team.
“My whole time at CMU, it almost feels like a dream,” Brandon said through tears. “They always just loved me for me, and so it was never anything I had to worry about, like, the color of my skin, my sexuality, it just didn’t matter.”
The complaint and jury demand stated that Brandon’s contract at GJHS was not renewed at the end of the 2023-2024 school year even though she claims she “consistently performed well as a District 51 employee.” Under the factual allegations, her lawyers indicated that during her two years at GJHS, every single progress report she received demonstrated that she “met or exceeded expectations, without exception.”
Brandon claimed that she faced “heightened scrutiny” as a black lesbian woman while employed at GJHS, especially from the District Athletic Director Paul Cain. Cain is also an alum of CMU, though it was still Mesa State when he attended.
He graduated in 1990 and was inducted into CMU Athletics Hall of Honor in 2000 for his basketball career.
Cain is cited in the lawsuit for “unreasonably” scolding Brandon for requesting a half day off to attend a basketball game at another school, even though other similarly positioned coaches took full days off for the same reason, without being questioned.
Brandon’s complaint claimed that Cain “unjustifiably opposed” her promotion to head coach “despite her eminent qualifications and excellent performance reviews.” The complaint also stated that Cain escalated the “hyper-scrutiny” in December of 2023 “when a baseless accusation was filed against Ms. Brandon, falsely alleging that she had sexually harassed a student.”
The complaint states that “Ms. Brandon was found completely innocent of all allegations in the Title IX investigation in a report issued on February 27, 2024,” and that “[a] heterosexual employee of District 51 who was similarly situated to Ms. Brandon would not even have been accused of inappropriate behavior based on such an innocuous photo and conduct.”
Her notice of non-renewal was issued just one day prior to the release of the investigation report on Feb. 26, 2024.
Brandon said that working at GJHS was a dream of hers because she loves the school and the community and she wanted to represent what she needed when she was a student there.
“I didn’t always feel like I fit in, in the community, and so I felt like being that person who looked different and just was different as a person, like, it was important for me to stay in the community,” Brandon said. “Just for kids who maybe felt like an outcast.”
The complaint has sworn statements in support of Brandon from three people, including a former GJHS student, one of Brandon’s former coaching colleagues and a former D51 administrator. All of the statements claimed that Brandon was treated more harshly than her white, male and/or straight colleagues.
Brandon said that this could be because Grand Junction is just less diverse than other places.
“The area in general can be very racially ignorant, and that just comes from not being exposed to as many different people,” Brandon said.
The former school administrator stated that this environment was a product of the conservative school board, writing, “I saw firsthand that the members on the board did not promote a climate of inclusivity and acceptance during my time there.”
The school board has five elected members, and during Brandon’s tenure, Andrea Haitz served as president, Will Jones as vice president, Angela Lema as secretary and Jośe Luis Chávez and Barb Evanson as directors.
After the election that took place earlier in November, Jones and Lema were replaced by Kaci Cole and Vicki Woods. Haitz, who campaigns on a conservative ideology, held her position by less than 2,000 votes.
The Criterion reached out for interviews from the CMU coaching staff that worked with Brandon while she was a Lady Maverick, but there was no response from Pollart or Wagner. The Criterion requested statements from D51, GJHS, and any defendants named in the complaint, but there has been no response.
Since she was let go from GJHS, Brandon started teaching at Grand Valley Middle School in Parachute, Colorado.
