Former Social Services employee whose claims went viral intends to sue Roanoke
A woman who claimed on social media that she was fired by the Roanoke Department of Social Services for holding a concealed weapons permit said Monday she intends to sue the city.
Storm Durham said she is working with attorneys supplied by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a Second Amendment advocacy group.
Human Resources Director Michele Vineyard was more direct writing city employees in an internal memo obtained by The Roanoke Times.
“The actions taken by the City were not based upon the former employee’s right to hold a concealed carry permit for firearms,” Vineyard wrote. “I want to emphasize that we have no policy or procedure limiting the right of employees to hold concealed carry permits as authorized by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia. We respect and support the Constitutional rights of our employees as citizens.”
Durham said Friday she received a document explaining her termination, with the reasons including performance issues during her six months with the office. Other reasons, by her account, were being arrogant, not paying attention during training, attendance and not being properly dressed. None of those claims were founded, she said.
Durham was a child protective services investigator still in her one-year probationary period as an employee, she said.
I think someone who gets canned, posts on facebook, is all excited about how many likes her facebook post has, blabbing on what ever media she can appear on, hasn't really learned to be quiet, and let your lawyers handle it. I think there is a high probability that she can be a drama queen and attention grabber.
Last edited by Smokepole; 03-14-2018 at 05:40 AM.
Trustee
I know the article says that there were other issues they were firing her for... The state better hope those are all well-documented. As it stands, she says her owning guns and having a carry license was the reason stated. her bosses say that was just part of the reason - for safety because she "could" be a threat. So they're not exactly contradicting her.
She may have a good case. Without documented violations of procedures that other people have also been fired for, she could give them a good fight since they brought in MULTIPLE police just to show her the door. That speaks volumes about motive.
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