South Atlanta JROTC Instructors Sue APS, Say Complaints Cost Them Their Careers

Two former JROTC instructors at South Atlanta High School say they lost their military certifications and their jobs not because they did anything wrong, but because they complained about being treated worse than a female colleague. Dave W. O'Garro and Maurice Bonner have filed a lawsuit against Atlanta Public Schools alleging sex discrimination and retaliation, according to the suit, and they are asking for reinstatement to their positions along with compensatory damages.

According to Atlanta News First, O'Garro and Bonner filed EEOC complaints alleging sex discrimination before Atlanta Public Schools opened disciplinary hearings against them. The district ultimately placed both men on administrative leave, and the lawsuit claims that Army proceedings then used APS's discredited findings as the basis for withdrawing the plaintiffs' certifications. The Army went on to revoke O'Garro and Bonner's certifications to lead JROTC, effectively ending their ability to work in the program at all.

Both men served as JROTC instructors at South Atlanta High School, a southeast Atlanta campus of roughly 900 to 940 students that operates under Principal Phillip Braziel II, per Public School Review. O'Garro's history with the district goes back further still; Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts payroll records show he was employed as a teacher with the Atlanta Independent School System as early as fiscal year 2011, and he had previously served in Carver High School's JROTC program before moving to South Atlanta.

Claims of a Double Standard

At the center of the lawsuit is an accusation that administrators held O'Garro and Bonner to a higher standard than a female colleague, JROTC instructor Marquita Hadley. The suit claims school staff protected Hadley despite what the plaintiffs describe as multiple policy violations and documented instances of subordination on her part. U.S. Army JROTC materials confirm Hadley was serving as an instructor for South Atlanta's Hornets Battalion as recently as December 2024, underscoring that she remained in her post even as the men's cases moved forward.

The lawsuit also alleges that Braziel made his intentions toward O'Garro explicit. According to the suit, Braziel said he tried to get rid of O'Garro but was told he could not, and separately told him, “If it was up to me, I would get rid of you.” Atlanta Public Schools, for its part, declared that the allegations against O'Garro and Bonner were unfounded — a finding the lawsuit says the district nonetheless passed along to the Army, which then relied on it to strip the men's certifications.

How the Army-District Split Creates Friction

The dispute illustrates a structural quirk of how JROTC programs are run nationwide. A January 2026 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that JROTC instructors operate under a dual-employer structure, where local school districts handle day-to-day employment while military branches retain sole authority over decertification — an arrangement the report says creates administrative friction during disciplinary disputes. That framework helps explain how a district that found the allegations against O'Garro and Bonner unfounded still triggered a process that ended their military certifications.

Army Regulation 145-2 and Cadet Command Regulation 145-2 govern that certification process, and they specify that instructors facing decertification for conduct discrediting the military are entitled to formal notification and a 30-day window to submit a rebuttal before a final decision is made. It remains an open question whether O'Garro and Bonner exercised that rebuttal option, and whether the Army's review relied solely on APS's referral or included any independent military inquiry.

A Broader Pattern of Retaliation Claims

Nationally, retaliation claims are the single most common basis for federal employment complaints. Retaliation accounted for 42,301 of the 88,531 total workplace discrimination charges the EEOC received in fiscal year 2024 — 47.8 percent of all charges — marking the 17th consecutive year retaliation has topped the list, according to law firm NT Lakis. Georgia itself accounted for 6.9 percent of all discrimination charges the EEOC received nationwide in fiscal year 2025, ranking third among states behind Texas and Florida, per a Gen Re report.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related EEOC guidance, retaliatory action is defined as any materially adverse employer conduct that might deter a reasonable worker from engaging in protected EEO activity — a standard that applies regardless of whether the underlying discrimination charge is ultimately proven. That standard is what O'Garro and Bonner will need to satisfy in court: showing that APS's referral to the Army was materially adverse conduct connected to their EEOC filings, rather than a routine administrative step.

South Atlanta High School has been in the local news before. Hoodline previously reported that an indoor fire prompted a full building evacuation at the campus in March, with Atlanta Fire Rescue safely extinguishing the blaze and no injuries reported. How Atlanta Public Schools will respond to the new allegations, including the claims of disparate treatment involving Hadley, remains to be seen.