MIAMI – A Florida-based professional interdisciplinary artist, last month filed a lawsuit against Miami-Dade County Public Schools alleging officials compelled her to destroy more than 20 years of artistic work.
Beláxis Buil claims MDCPS ordered her to delete and take down her professional art websites as a condition of maintaining her employment with the school district.
“Plaintiff's speech and artwork as a professional artist constitutes speech of a private citizen on matters of public concern, wholly unrelated to her duties as a public school employee,” her lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida states.
According to the 26-page filing, Buil is a professional interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, and art educator who resides in Miami. She is considered “highly accomplished” with more than 20 years of experience “creating, exhibiting, and curating interdisciplinary work,” the lawsuit states.
She holds an undergraduate degree in fine arts from University of Florida and a Master of Fine Arts, or MFA, in Interdisciplinary Studio Art from Florida International University.
“Plaintiff's artwork has been exhibited in galleries, museums, art fairs, and online galleries both nationally and internationally for over twenty years,” her lawsuit states.
“Plaintiff maintains professional art practice websites that serve as her portfolio, displaying her exhibited works, artist statements, didactic materials, and documentation of her artistic evolution and practice.”
These websites, she claims, are “essential professional tools” that enable her to submit her work to curators, museums, galleries, grant panels, and exhibition opportunities at the local, national, and international levels.
Buil claims her websites have been publicly accessible for more than 20 years and contain artwork created long before her employment with MDCPS.
Buil has taught art at multiple MDCPS institutions, including Eneida Hartner Elementary and Shenandoah Middle School, prior to her assignment at Benjamin Franklin K-8.
She was hired by MDCPS as an art teacher in August 2020. As part of its hiring process, the district conducted a background check.
“MDCPS's background check process is a comprehensive review that, in the digital age, encompasses publicly available information, including online presence and professional websites,” the lawsuit notes. “Plaintiff's professional art practice websites were publicly accessible and discoverable at the time of hire.”
Buil alleges she was transparent with Dr. Diana Loubeau, the principal of Benjamin Franklin K-8, about being a professional artist.
Loubeau, who is a named defendant in the lawsuit, never asked about the content of Buil’s websites and never raised “any concern” about her outside artistic practice prior to May 2022, Buil contends.
“Prior to and during her employment with MDCPS, Plaintiff maintained complete separation between her professional artistic practice and her classroom teaching,” the lawsuit states. “She never created, exhibited, discussed, demonstrated, performed, or otherwise referred to her professional artwork in the classroom or used her artwork for curriculum purposes.”
However, in May 2022, unknown individuals discovered Buil’s websites and began circulating information about her artwork.
“Plaintiff promptly reported this incident to Defendant (George D.) Pratt and Defendant Dr. Loubeau, informing them that unknown parties were trolling her online and circulating her professional artwork in an effort to harass her and endanger her employment,” the filing states.
Buil claims that despite district policy, administrators failed to investigate who was responsible for the trolling and cyber-bullying. Instead, she contends the district’s investigative unit, the CIU, prepared a report “focused exclusively” on her.
“The decision to investigate the victim rather than the perpetrator was consistent with a broader MDCPS custom and practice of silencing employees who become the subjects of online controversy, irrespective of whether the employee engaged in any wrongdoing,” the complaint states.
As a result, “under duress and while crying,” Buil alleges she was forced to delete and take down her professional art websites.
“At no time did any Defendant offer Plaintiff any alternative to the complete destruction of her professional websites, nor did they afford her any opportunity to consult with legal counsel or her union representative before compelling her to destroy her work,” the lawsuit states.
Not only was she forced to delete her websites, but Buil alleges she also was forced to transfer from Benjamin Franklin K-8 and reassigned to a school more than an hour away from her daughter’s school – a transfer decision made by and implemented through district-level officials, not school-level administrators, she notes in her lawsuit.
“MDCPS district officials were fully aware of the facts and circumstances surrounding the compelled deletion of Plaintiff's websites, the nature of her professional artwork, and the constitutional implications of the directive before they ratified and continued the unconstitutional actions taken against her,” the complaint states.
The Florida Department of Education eventually reviewed the MDCPS decision and in January 2023 issued a “no further action” letter, according to the lawsuit.
“Despite this notification – which constituted formal, governmental vindication of Plaintiff – MDCPS took no corrective action, did not remove the ethics violations from Plaintiff's record, and did not restore Plaintiff's professional reputation,” Buil’s filing states.
“By continuing to maintain disciplinary actions and ethics violations against Plaintiff after receiving formal notice of her vindication, MDCPS and its final policymakers – including the School Board – ratified and adopted the unconstitutional conduct of Dr. Loubeau and Pratt as official MDCPS policy.”
Buil alleges MDCPS violated the federal Civil Rights Act and her constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
She seeks an injunction requiring MDCPS remove all ethics violations and disciplinary records related to the incident from her record; restore her professional reputation through public statements and corrections to her personnel file; implement mandatory First Amendment training; compensatory damages; punitive damages; pre- and post-judgment interest; and attorneys’ fees.
Cornell & Associates PA in Weston is representing Buil in the lawsuit.
