Editor’s note: In response to a question about banning certain materials from school libraries, Academy District 20 school board member Derrick Wilburn read passages from books currently available in D-20 middle and high schools, including a sexually explicit excerpt from the novel “Push.”

An Academy District 20 school board member has filed a lawsuit alleging that a district parent has waged a public, multi-pronged smear campaign against him for almost a year.

Derrick Wilburn, who was elected to the board in November 2023, alleges that Bernadette Guthrie has made false and defamatory statements about him on social media, at school board meetings, and to the District Attorney’s Office, according to the 26-page lawsuit document.

Wilburn is seeking a public retraction and unspecified damages from Guthrie, according to the lawsuit.

“This is one of the worst defamation and outrageous conduct cases I have ever come across,” said David Illingworth, Wilburn’s attorney, in an emailed statement to The Gazette.

“Mrs. Guthrie’s disappointment with an election is not a blank check to hurl vile and outrageously false slander for nearly a year now at a good and decent family man.”

Filed on Dec. 10, the lawsuit comes months after a cease-and-desist letter, dated April 17, that accused Guthrie of purposely trying to damage Wilburn’s reputation with “false and defamatory” statements following an incident that occurred during a student-led school board candidate forum at Chinook Trail Middle School on Oct. 4, 2023.

During that forum, in response to a question about banning certain materials from school libraries, Wilburn read passages from books currently available in District 20 middle and high schools, including a sexually explicit excerpt from the novel “Push.”

Since Wilburn took his seat on the board, Guthrie, who attended the forum with her then 11-year-old daughter, has said that the reading from “Push” traumatized her daughter and she alleges that reading sexually graphic material aloud in the presence of young children is tantamount to sexual abuse.

Guthrie, who declined to comment for this story on advice from her attorney, told The Gazette in May, “Nothing I’ve said is untrue. I have said that I think (Wilburn) is dangerous to kids, and that I don’t want him near my daughter.”

The lawsuit — which refers to Wilburn’s forum response as a “policy statement” about the availability of sexually and racially inflammatory materials in district schools — includes excerpts from multiple emails and social media posts in which Guthrie accuses Wilburn of being a “child predator” who exposed children to sexually explicit material for his own enjoyment.

Guthrie’s “outrageously false” allegations, according to the lawsuit document, have harmed Wilburn’s reputation, caused him to lose personal and professional relationships, and taken an emotional and physical toll.

“Her actions have had their intended effect,” the lawsuit states. “(Wilburn) lives under a cloud of suspicion in his own community. The results of her conduct are foreseeable and obscene.”

Wilburn also declined a Gazette request for comment.

Guthrie’s most recent public statement concerning Wilburn came during the public comments segment of District 20’s May 9 board meeting, when she said the cease-and-desist letter was an attempt to intimidate her into silence.

“Therefore I will spend the next 1 minute and 30 seconds apologizing for the following untrue statements that I have made about Derrick Wilburn,” she said before standing silently at the podium for the remainder of her speaking time.

Illingworth said that Guthrie’s accusations have been malicious, injurious and ultimately without legal merit.

“We wish it was not necessary to go this route, but Mrs. Guthrie’s defamation and victimization campaign left us no choice,” he stated.