Vestavia Hills officials declined to answer questions Monday about where a local elementary school principal has been for the past semester.
Lauren Dressback is still listed on Cahaba Heights Elementary’s website as the school’s principal. But according to parents, and a series of social media posts that emerged this weekend, she hasn’t set foot in the school since February.
At a board meeting Monday, residents and school alumni claimed Dressback was placed on administrative leave shortly after she discussed her sexual orientation with school staff.
“This sudden and unexplained action appears to me and many other community members to be an unjustified attack on an LGBTQ faculty member,” Patrick Mills, a Vestavia Hills graduate, told the school board during public comment Monday evening.
District officials repeatedly declined to comment on the allegations. An attorney for Dressback also declined to comment Monday and could not be reached after the board meeting.
“It’s been my recommendation for 47 years and also tonight that this board should not discuss personnel matters in a public meeting,” school board attorney Patrick Boone told reporters after the meeting.
Dressback, a Vestavia Hills graduate, was hired as Cahaba Heights’ principal in April 2022 and has over 20 years of experience in education.
AL.com verified that her contract was renewed in March 2023.
Mills, who identified himself to the board as gay, said the school system – despite the opportunities it offered – was not always a welcoming place for him. He said he believes it has made little progress in supporting LGBTQ students and staff since he graduated in 2016.
“I would have done anything to have an outwardly gay teacher or administrator like Lauren Dressback,” he said. “Children and students need to see their identity represented in school.”
