Former Grand Junction High School girls basketball coach and physical education teacher Sydni Brandon is suing Mesa County Valley School District 51 alleging discrimination.
Brandon is the plaintiff in the federal court case that names GJHS assistant principal Josh Warriner, GJHS principal Jory Sorensen and Mesa County Valley School District 51 as the defendants.
According to the 34-page federal complaint filed by Brandon and her legal team, the case is based on alleged discrimination Brandon experienced for her race and sexual orientation. The complaint was filed in federal court on Sept. 24, 2025, in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.
Tammy Eret, the legal counsel for District 51, in a document submitted to the Orange & Black on Nov. 6, wrote, “The District supports the GJHS administration involved in this matter and we believe they acted in accordance with District policy and professional standards as they pertain to the decisions they made within their roles.”
The full document by Eret is published on the following page.
News about the complaint filed by Brandon was dropped on the front page of The Daily Sentinel newspaper on Oct. 1 by reporter Sam Klomhaus. The article specifically named GJHS administrators as defendants in the complaint, as well as reporting Brandon, a woman of color who identifies as lesbian, as the plaintiff.
According to Christine Spillane, a history teacher at GJHS and a former attorney at a New York law firm, most civil cases will not go to trial. After a complaint is filed by the plaintiff, both parties will have an off-the-record discussion on a potential settlement. The case could be settled with either the plaintiff receiving monetary compensation, reinstatement at the original place of employment, or if the complaint is considered insubstantial the case could be dropped altogether.
“Its a process, and through the course of the process they [the defendants] can’t say anything about it,” Spillane said.
Spillane said plaintiffs in cases can also use federal complaints as a way to sway public opinion to their side. Civil rights cases are a broad range of cases that cover race, sexual orientation, and also cover violations against special education according to Spillane.
Brandon worked at GJHS for two years as a physical education teacher, girls basketball coach, and as an assistant track coach. She also worked for Mt. Garfield Middle School in D51 for approximately two years prior to her time at GJHS.
According to Brandon’s claim, she received positive performance evaluations and was never informed about anything that she needed to improve on. The complaint alleges that she was given this different treatment due to her race and sexual orientation.
Brandon was a former GJHS standout basketball player who later played for Colorado Mesa University. According to the Official CMU Athletics website, Brandon remains among the all-time leaders in steals and assists.
Brandon was hired to be a full time PE teacher and would be selected as the GJHS girls basketball coach for the 2022-2023 season and would later be terminated from her teaching and coaching position after the 2023-2024 season.
During Brandon’s time as a coach at GJHS the girls basketball team went 0-23 during the 2022-2023 season and 6-17 during the 2023-2024 season, according to MaxPreps.
The complaint states that Brandon was subjected to hyperscrutiny by D51 Athletic Director Paul Cain that many other heterosexual white colleagues said they were not subject to.
“Ms. Brandon experienced discrimination based on her race, sex, and sexual orientation from the District Athletic Director Paul Cain. Mr. Cain unreasonably scolded Ms. Brandon in an email requesting a half day substitute so that she could attend a basketball game at another high school,” the complaint stated.
According to the complaint, the discriminatory hyper-scrutiny Brandon faced reached an all time high when she was accused of sexually harassing a student around Dec. 1, 2023.
“The accuser alleged that Ms. Brandon was sitting in a car alone with a student, when in reality Ms. Brandon was photographed merely sitting in her partner’s car on school property. Ms. Brandon manifestly had done absolutely nothing wrong,” the complaint stated.
Brandon alleged that she was treated differently than her straight heterosexual employees when she would witness a similarly situated colleague eat lunch with a student in the football office without any consequences.
In May 2024, Brandon was allegedly moved from the “certified” rows to the “outliers’ section” with the only other Black teacher during graduation proceedings.
An anonymous faculty member mentioned in the complaint said, “It felt like they were trying to punish her for something.”
Former students and colleagues of Brandon’s provided statements in the complaint.
An anonymous student who reportedly attended all four years of high school at GJHS and graduated in 2024 was quoted in the claim filed by Brandon: “I observed teachers and coaches who were white and, to my knowledge, identified as heterosexual, exhibit behaviors and practices with students that could be deemed inappropriate by school administrators. Had Sydni exhibited those same behaviors, it is my observation that she likely would have been critiqued or even disciplined for them, even though these other teachers and coaches had not been critiqued or disciplined based on what I know.”
The student in the complaint said that when they were close to Brandon several students would make jokes about them going as far to say that the student was lesbian or the relationship was inappropriate. The student in the complaint said that no comments were made about the football coach’s relationships with male students in any similar way to Brandon.
The student in the complaint said that they were close with another female teacher who is married to another staff member, and never received questions or scrutiny regarding their relationship like they did with Brandon.
The student in the complaint said that Brandon was not properly protected from racism when Brandon and school officials would be in earshot of students using the N-word with no punishment being shown to students using it.
“Due to Sydni’s sexual orientation, I observed that people made unfair and completely unwarranted assumptions that she would engage in predatory behavior toward the students or would somehow be a bad influence on them. For example, I heard [name redacted], made a negative comment regarding Sydni’s hiring… He said he would not want his daughter to play for her because she is lesbian,” the student in the complaint alleged.
Brandon’s former coaching colleague also provided his own sworn statement anonymously in the complaint.
“Syd and I were the only black teachers/coaches at Grand Junction High School, and we leaned on each other for support. I observed that we both felt secluded based on our race. This is ultimately why I left the school, partnered with the fact that Syd was not going to be returning,” the anonymous coach in the complaint said.
The complaint alleges that the defendants failed to provide good faith performance management that are typically provided to employees that are under probation, and states that District 51 significantly deviated from its performance management process for her that were provided for her white, heterosexual colleagues.
Sorensen and Warinner declined to comment on the case. D51 Superintendent Dr. Brian Hill did not respond to an email request to comment.
Randi Sanchez • Dec 4, 2025 at 2:37 pm
Places all need to start being held accountable for discrimination in the workplace, based on a anything besides your actual performance. Rules should be the same for all employees, no playing favorites, no nepotism, no more people afraid to lose their jobs and income simply because they dont fit into other’s opinions of who they should be, what they look like, or the people that they choose to have relationships with. If it doesn’t affect their ability to perform the job, it shouldn’t be an issue, end of story.