During a public hearing before the Labor and Public Employees Committee on February 27, Dr. Jason Scavotto of Manchester High School testified both in person and in writing that he had been pushed out of a previous job and almost left the profession after he was “accused of undermining the superintendent of schools by pursuing diversity work in the school,” and was issued a formal letter of discipline.

“Now, it’s important to note that I previously needed to file a Title IX complaint against this superintendent when he accused me of ‘talking about my weird religious beliefs during class,’” Scavotto testified before the Labor Committee. “The building principal then issued me written discipline as directed by the superintendent of schools. This discipline included a formal disciplinary letter in my file as well as a negative ‘review of practice’ being included in my evaluation for the year.”

Scavotto goes on to write that he was so troubled by this incident that he resigned and considered leaving the teaching profession before he found his “home in Manchester with a superintendent and board of education that cares about their teachers,” and supports diversity efforts to reach all students, regardless of their background.

Scavotto was testifying in support of Senate Bill 1371, a bill that would apply just cause standards to teacher terminations. Supporters of the bill argued that it would protect teachers from being terminated for political reasons, like exercising their free speech rights that are then amplified on social media, and Scavotto’s stated experience appeared to be the perfect example of politicized discipline – indeed, Inside Investigator highlighted his testimony to illustrate the point.

However, there is nothing in Scavotto’s records from his time as an English teacher at Ellington Public Schools that supports any of the claims he made in his testimony before the committee, according to the results of a Freedom of Information request. 

There is no letter of discipline, there is no record of a Title IX complaint lodged by him against the superintendent, and the chairperson of Ellington’s Board of Education had sent Scavotto a glowing letter of thanks and praise for his work with the diversity groups in the school, efforts that he outlined in a May 5, 2021, letter to the Board of Education and other school officials.

“We appreciate your positive comments and honor the work that the entire high school has done to create a more equitable and inclusive environment,” wrote Ellington Board of Education Chair Jennifer Dzen in a May 7, 2021, email to Scavotto. “The Board has, is and will continue to support all of our Core Values and Beliefs including the belief that we create an equitable, inclusive, and supportive culture where people are safe, accepted and valued at every school in our district.”

Scavotto’s efforts were also praised by a parent during a school board meeting shortly after he sent the letter, according to BOE meeting minutes.

“I can confirm that no member of Ellington High School administration – including me – drafted a letter of discipline at the direction of the Superintendent (or any other Ellington Public School employee) for Mr. Scavotto regarding the matter described in Mr. Scavotto’s testimony to the Connecticut General Assembly,” Ellington High School Principal John R. Guidry wrote in a March 27, 2025, email to Human Resources in response to Inside Investigator’s records request.

“As the Title IX District Coordinator, I am able to confirm that Mr. Scavotto did not file a Title IX complaint of any kind against the Superintendent, relative to his testimony or otherwise,” wrote Director of Special Services Dr. Kristy LaPorte. “Therefore, there are no investigative findings as there was never a complaint filed by Mr. Scavotto with my office.”

Reached for comment, Scavotto acknowledged that there’s no documentation and that, despite his claims of receiving a formal letter of discipline and filing a Title IX complaint, everything was done off-the-record and “behind closed doors.” 

“You won’t be able to find any documentation. Everything was done behind closed doors and [Superintendent] Scott Nicol was very careful to not allow documentation to be preserved,” Scavotto wrote. “The Title IX complaint was handled in-house through Dr. Kristy LaPorte.”

“The discipline I was given was done in the form of a Review of Practice – which becomes a digital record in the evaluation process not subject to FOI requests. In addition, the letter was removed from my file upon my resignation,” Scavotto wrote. “The testimony is accurate.  However, there is little written documentation because a district like Ellington uses the evaluation system as a disciplinary tool which is confidential.”

While Review of Practice records are protected from FOI, they can be provided by the teacher, or the teacher can give permission for those records to be released. Scavotto says that he no longer has access to his evaluations for that district, and although Inside Investigator asked, he did not offer to grant permission to obtain the Review of Practice in question.

According to Scavotto, he believes he was passed over for a promotion because of the discipline he received, and claims that he reached out to the state regarding his Title IX complaint, but “the issue was resolved when I was granted an interview, but then not hired anyway.”

“I did file paperwork at the state level, but it’s very hard to directly correlate being passed up for a promotion and comments made by the superintendent in a closed room meeting,” Scavotto wrote. “Unfortunately, I do not know what happened with that complaint and the form was hand written at that time and I sent it in and do not have a copy of it.”

While Scavotto did tender his resignation on July 31, 2021, and may have considered leaving the teaching profession as he testified, he was announced as the new ELA Instructor for Windsor Locks High School for the fall of 2021 school semester, which he says was the result of “many interviews including interviews outside of the teaching field.” Scavotto worked for that district before moving on to Manchester.

“Mr. Scavotto’s verbal and written testimony regarding SB 1371 contains significant fabrications and appears to be a deliberate attempt to sway elected officials in favor of legislation related to teacher termination,” said Ellington Superintendent Scott Nicol in an emailed statement. “Contrary to his claims, the Ellington administration neither drafted nor placed a formal disciplinary letter in his personnel file. Furthermore, Mr. Scavotto did not file a Title IX harassment complaint against me or any member of the administrative team, and no Title IX investigation was conducted by Dr. LaPorte, the Title IX Coordinator.”

Lawmakers serving on committees, who receive thousands of pieces of public testimony both in written form and in person, cannot be expected to fact-check every claim made to them, and there is no explicit law restricting someone from providing false testimony in a public hearing; it functions on the honor system and the ability of lawmakers to ask questions. There were very few in the room during Scavotto’s testimony.

“Yes, it’s on the honor system,” said Rep. Steven Weir, R-Hebron, ranking member on the Labor Committee, who had to step away for another committee meeting while Scavotto was testifying. “You’d like to believe people are there to provide credible testimony, however, I have observed in many meetings and public hearings that sometimes people come with an agenda, and some of the claims they make are sometimes outlandish and defy logic.”

“It’s certainly a serious matter when someone offers testimony to a legislative committee that appears to be inconsistent with the facts, especially in such a public forum,” said Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, ranking member on the Labor Committee. “Personally, I’ve always approached testimony with a healthy degree of skepticism, especially in political settings. I even find myself cautious about the accuracy of what my colleagues say.”

“I think it’s my job to listen to the testimony and filter as best I can,” Weir said. “There are times when I felt I wasn’t getting the whole story, but you don’t want to accuse somebody of being untruthful. Furthermore, you weigh the testimony of one person with the overall testimony. If you have someone make an outlandish accusation, you weigh that against what you’re hearing from other people on the same topic.” 

Rep. Weir says that perhaps it would make sense for people signing up to testify or submitting testimony to check a box swearing their testimony is true to the best of their knowledge 

“I’m not sure that there would be repercussions, but certainly put people on notice that we don’t expect anything other than the truth,” Weir said. “Just as we do in many other places where we sign for a license, or we sign for other privileges in the state. We attest to the truthfulness of our statement. I don’t think that would be a bad thing.”

“While mechanisms do exist in some jurisdictions to hold individuals accountable for knowingly providing false testimony—particularly when under oath—Connecticut doesn’t currently have a law that applies specifically to legislative hearings in this way,” Sampson said. “I would, however, be hesitant to support any measure that might discourage honest citizens from participating in the legislative process. If we could craft something that targets only the most egregious and deliberate cases of falsehood, I’d be open to considering it.”

Requests for comment to the chairs of the Labor and Public Employees Committee were not returned.

“The administration and the Chair of the Ellington Board of Education acknowledged and praised Mr. Scavotto for his contributions to diversity initiatives at Ellington High School,” Nicol wrote. “At no point did the Ellington administration consider, discuss, or communicate any intent to terminate Mr. Scavotto’s employment with the Ellington Public Schools.”

“The Just Cause rights that I testified about would have made this entire process more transparent and I would have had more protections,” Scavotto wrote. “I decided not to pursue any of this after I made the decision to leave the district.”

Republish This Story

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.