GAINESVILLE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) – A Georgia nutritionist employed by a school district says she was fired for reporting improper billing practices, in violation of the False Claims Act.
Teresa Farley cites the federal FCA and the Georgia Whistleblower Protection Act in her lawsuit against Gilmer County Schools that was filed in Florida federal court. She says she was terminated after raising concerns about what was happening in Gilmer’s School Nutrition Program, which is mostly funded by the U.S. government.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reimburses school food programs for their expenses, the suit says.
Her first gripe was that teachers were taking meals without charging their accounts, giving the impression in the billing that students had taken the meals. This caused the district to submit inflated claims for reimbursement, she says.
In March 2020, Farley says she noticed students coming through the breakfast line to get meals for their teachers.
“Plaintiff subsequently discovered that it had become common practice for teachers to tell students to get food from the cafeteria for them so that they would not have to pay for it,” the lawsuit says.
When Farley started asking for teacher names so she could charge their accounts, she says leadership in the district resisted. Farley complained to the USDA, but denied doing so for fear of losing her job.
Ultimately, the practice continued and Farley was fired, she says.