She interviewed for head job with South MS school system. Now, she’s suing
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- Broussard filed a federal lawsuit alleging she was passed over for superintendent.
- She said her interview took place in a chapel that began with prayer and Bible reading.
- She filed an EEOC complaint in June 2025 and got a right-to-sue notice in January.
Kelleigh Broussard felt confident before she interviewed with the Pearl River County School Board for the superintendent’s job a year ago.
Then 54, she had 23 years’ experience in public education and had served as assistant superintendent for four years, when the school district enjoyed high rankings. She was in the process of completing a doctorate in educational leadership. And, according to a lawsuit she has filed in U.S. District Court, Broussard had received local, state and national recognition for her work.
She said in the lawsuit that she was passed over for the job in favor of Robin “Jeremy” Weir, the current superintendent, who had “substantially less experience and qualifications.” Broussard is now assistant superintendent in the Long Beach School District.
Weir, her lawsuit pointed out, lost his job as Bay-Waveland Middle School principal and was escorted off the campus, the Sun Herald reported in September 2022. Weir told the Sun Herald on Monday that the situation was a “misunderstanding,” and provided a copy of a recommendation letter for the superintendent’s job from Bay-Waveland Superintendent Sandra Reed.
“It should also be noted that the termination was rescinded and I resigned from Bay-Waveland School District and was retired for 2 and 1/2 years,” he wrote in an email.
Broussard’s lawsuit said, “He allowed his license to lapse and had been out of public education as a licensed, practicing administrator until just before the announcement of this job.”
Weir served on the Pearl River County School Board from 2011 to 2018, according to a Picayune Item story about his appointment as Pearl River superintendent.
EEOC gives superintendent candidate right to sue
Broussard filed a discrimination complaint with the EEOC in June 2025. She noted that community members surveyed before the superintendent job search “expressed concern about the potential for favoritism and nepotism” in the selection process.
In its written response to the EEOC, the district denied that favoritism or personal relationships had any bearing on Weir’s selection, Broussard’s lawsuit says. The district also denied a “longstanding personal relationship” between Weir and Eli Ouder, the school board president. But Broussard’s lawsuit said the two men had a personal relationship dating to childhood.
The EEOC notified Broussard in January that she had the right to file a lawsuit, a standard response to discrimination complaints. The school district’s attorney, Jim Keith of Ridgeland, did not respond to the Sun Herald’s message about the lawsuit. The district has not had time to file a written response to the lawsuit, which represents only Broussard’s claims.
Broussard said in her lawsuit that she was uncomfortable when she was interviewed for the job. About 15 years earlier, she said, she learned her biological father was Jewish and began exploring the religion after being raised Catholic by parents who had adopted her. Judaism, she said, became “a meaningful and sincere component of her personal religious identity.”
She told only a few people about her exploration of Judaism, she said. The school board interviewed her for the superintendent’s job in a chapel, she said, starting the process with a prayer and reading of Biblical text.
During the reading, (Broussard) bowed her head out of deference to those present who might be practicing Christians,” said her lawsuit, filed by attorney Louis H. Watson Jr. of Oxford. “Internally, (she) felt it strange and frankly inappropriate for there to be a reading from the Bible as a prelude to a meeting held for the purpose of filling a vacancy in a public school district.”
In addition to her discrimination claims, Broussard’s lawsuit said the district violated federal law by endorsing religion and coercing her to participate.
She is asking that the judge, Sul Ozerden, order the district to stop using religious venues and incorporating religious exercises into official government proceedings. She also wants back wages and future wages in lieu of reinstatement, unspecified compensatory damages, attorney’s fees, lost benefits and court costs.
