A former City of San Antonio driver who spent more than three years shuttling seniors to city centers says she was disciplined, transferred, and ultimately fired within days of reporting a sexual harassment incident to human resources. Megan Lee Garza filed a federal employment discrimination lawsuit against the City of San Antonio this week, laying out a years-long pattern she says began with a dispute over Pride Month decorations on her city-assigned bus and ended with her termination in May 2026.
Garza worked under the City of San Antonio's Department of Human Services starting in October 2022, transporting elderly residents from their homes to senior centers, according to a report from KSAT. The lawsuit, filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas under case number 5:26-cv-05511, alleges the retaliation traces back to June 2024, when Garza's direct supervisor approved her plan to decorate her bus for Pride Month. According to the lawsuit, the city later told Garza to remove the decorations and chalk from her bus, and in 2023 the city had also removed Pride decorations from the Walker Ranch Senior Center, one of the municipal senior facilities operated by the city's Department of Human Services.
A Keyed Bus and a Separated Stocking
Garza says she was disciplined and targeted after speaking out about the removal of the Pride decorations. In December 2023, her holiday stocking was reportedly separated from her colleagues' stockings and thrown on the floor, and that same month a city equal employment opportunity administrator accused her of having a romantic relationship with a female coworker — an accusation Garza says was untrue and made her uncomfortable. In June 2024, Garza's city-assigned bus was reportedly keyed while parked in a badge-access-controlled yard, according to the lawsuit.
The following year brought escalating discipline. Supervisors accused Garza of two driving incidents during the summer of 2025, including one in which they alleged she nearly ended a member's life in a near-miss incident, per the lawsuit. In May 2025 she was suspended five days for neglect of duty and failure to follow instructions, though the city later reduced that suspension to three days. Garza also took a late 55-minute lunch in April 2025 after working through her scheduled lunch period, and she was disciplined three times in February 2026 for reporting a duplicate system entry and for driving complaints.
FMLA Leave and a Contested Transfer
The city approved Garza's intermittent FMLA leave, which she used multiple times between January 2025 and 2026 to manage chronic migraine headaches that caused episodic incapacity, including visual impairment that prevented her from operating a commercial vehicle. Despite that approved leave, the lawsuit alleges the city assessed attendance points against her for taking advantage of FMLA, and Garza accuses the city of penalizing her for using leave to which she was legally entitled under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. Federal law under 29 U.S.C. § 2615 prohibits employers from interfering with or retaliating against employees who request or use protected medical leave, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Garza was also involuntarily transferred to the Doris Griffin Senior Center, a move she says would triple her commute. Court records cited in the lawsuit indicate a male driver was offered the same position and allowed to decline it. In March 2026, Garza's supervisor declined to meet with her for two weeks after she contacted human resources because she believed she was being targeted.
Curb Strike, Termination Letter, and a Locked Email
In April 2026, the city removed Garza from driving duties for one week after she hit a curb while dropping off a passenger. City HR representatives pressed her to resign rather than be terminated that same month, according to the lawsuit. The city then returned her to driving duties and assigned her additional routes later in April, only for events to take a sharp turn the following month.
In May 2026, a colleague witnessed a sexual harassment incident involving Garza and planned to report it. Garza reported the incident to human resources herself, and one week later, a city HR representative placed her on administrative leave. A city HR representative also called Garza multiple times a day urging her to resign. Days later, HR handed her a proposed termination letter, and Garza says she was locked out of her city email while trying to contest it. The city terminated her a few days after issuing that letter, and Garza's lawsuit alleges the city called her complaint unfounded.
Before her firing, Garza had already filed a complaint with the city's EEO office in July 2025 over what she described as a pattern of write-ups, and she submitted an inquiry to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April 2026. She has since appealed her termination with the Municipal Civil Service Commission, a three-member body established under San Antonio's City Charter that hears civilian employee appeals over suspensions, demotions, and terminations before making recommendations to the City Manager.
Legal Grounds and the City's Response
Garza's attorney, Adam Poncio of Poncio Law Offices, P.C., who holds double board certifications in Labor and Employment Law and Civil Appellate Law from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, told KSAT in an email that the filed complaint demonstrates a hidden pattern of discrimination and retaliation opposing an LGBTQ lifestyle. The lawsuit accuses the city of discriminating against Garza based on her sexual orientation, a claim evaluated under the U.S. Supreme Court's 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. San Antonio's own Non-Discrimination Ordinance, passed by City Council in September 2013, separately added sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories in municipal employment.
Garza has also said the city has not returned personal belongings she left in city vehicles. She is seeking reinstatement, back pay, damages, and attorney's fees. The City of San Antonio said it is reviewing the allegations and will respond through the legal process, adding that it remains committed to fair, lawful, and nondiscriminatory employment practices and intends to defend its personnel decisions and practices in court.
A Case Amid a National Surge in Retaliation Claims
Garza's allegations arrive against a backdrop of rising federal workplace complaints. Retaliation remained the most common allegation in charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in fiscal year 2024, accounting for 42,301 charges, or 47.8% of all claims, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Total charge receipts nationwide grew 9% that year to 88,531 filings, with the agency recovering nearly $700 million for affected workers, while sex-based discrimination claims made up 30.4% of all charges submitted.
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