New Hampshire teacher who helped student with abortion gets license restored after filing lawsuit

CONCORD, NH — The New Hampshire Department of Education has done so a teacher’s credentials restored days after she filed a lawsuit alleging that authorities misrepresented her involvement in the abortion of a college student.

The teacher, who was identified only as Jane Doe in her lawsuit filed Monday, did not contest her dismissal from a private school last fall but sued the Education Department and top officials over the revocation of her teaching license earlier this month. Her attorney, James Armillay, said he learned Thursday that her license had been reinstated “while the administrative process plays out.”

“We are confident that an impartial hearing officer, when presented with all the evidence in this case, will find that Ms. Doe did not violate the New Hampshire Educator Code of Conduct and that no sanction is warranted,” he said in a statement . e-mail. “In the meantime, Ms. Doe is excited to get back into the classroom to do what she loves: teaching New Hampshire’s students.”

In her lawsuit, the teacher said the education department exceeded its authority and violated her due process rights by revoking her license without a fair and impartial process. And it accuses Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut of pushing a false narrative about her behavior through an op-ed he published in April.

In that essay, Edelblut rhetorically wondered whether the department should “turn a blind eye” when “a teacher allegedly lies by calling in sick so they can take a student — without the parents’ knowledge — for an abortion.”

New Hampshire law requires parents to be notified in writing at least 48 hours before an abortion on an unemancipated minor. But in this case, the student did not live with her parents and was a legal adult, according to the lawsuit.

The teacher said she gave the student contact information for a health center last fall when the student announced her suspected pregnancy and later drove her to the October appointment. The school fired her within days and referred the matter to the Ministry of Education.

The hearing is scheduled for July 3, five days before the teacher starts a new job.