Judgement has been reserved in a court case launched by a school counsellor who claimed he was wrongly suspended by the Bermuda Union of Teachers for speaking to The Royal Gazette.

Civil hearings wrapped up in the Supreme Court yesterday after Nishanthi Bailey, a former president of the BUT, concluded her testimony.

On Thursday, she alleged that the Reverend Leonard Santucci, who served as the BUT representative at The Berkeley Institute, broke confidentiality rules when he spoke with the Gazette in response to questions posed by a reporter in 2021.

Ms Bailey continued her evidence yesterday under cross-examination by Mr Santucci’s lawyer, Vaughan Caines.

During her testimony, she told the court about three grounds on which Mr Santucci was suspended by the teachers’ umbrella body.

She said the union acted after Dr Santucci took “internal union business to the media” and she added that he allegedly shared an internal communique with the Gazette.

In addition, Ms Bailey alleged that Dr Santucci broke confidentiality of the union’s business “especially when that was reinforced with the school representatives prior to the suspension”.

Dr Santucci had argued that he was denied due process and unfairly stripped of his chance to run for the post of vice-president, despite being nominated.

The dispute stemmed from a decision to remove Mike Charles, a former general secretary at the union, in June that year.

Dr Santucci, the pastor at Vernon Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church in Southampton, initially brought his concerns to Ms Bailey.

However, he later gathered signatures from members to host a special general meeting dealing with the matter.

He suggested it could be held at The Berkeley Institute school field because of Covid-19 restrictions — but was told it was not an option because the union’s constitution required such meetings to be held in private.

The response also suggested that the points be included in the next Annual General Meeting.

Dr Santucci said he was subsequently contacted by the Gazette about the issue and responded to questions.

He said he had felt it necessary to give answers because educators had a responsibility to educate and the union’s communication network did not share dissenting views.

Dr Santucci was then suspended and Mr Charles’s successor, Anthony Wolffe, told him in a letter that he could no longer run for union vice-president in an upcoming election.

Mr Wolffe wrote that Dr Santucci had broken confidentiality by speaking to the media, bringing the union into public disrepute.

On Thursday, Mr Wolffe testified that matters concerning the union “should remain internal, and internal only”.

He said the constitution of the BUT allowed its executive committee to take disciplinary action against members.

Chief Justice Larry Mussenden reserved judgment.

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