Matthew Edmondson,  was a beloved middle school science teacher who had worked at The Pegasus  School in Huntington Beach, California for four years before leaving to  teach in Texas, and was asked to return to the school to teach 8th grade  science in the spring of 2007.  Past  administrators and staff at the school were aware that Matthew was gay and  HIV positive and  were all very accommodating and friendly.

But that changed in October 2011, when Matthew’s doctor changed his medication which caused some adverse side effects.  But Matthew kept on teaching never using than his allotted personal time off and  in fact, throughout his tenure from 2002 on, he rarely used personal time off.

Matthew reported the side effects of his new medication to recently appointed Head of School, John Zurn and Joseph Williamson, the middle school director and that was when things changed drastically for Matthew at The Pegasus  School .

According to court documents both Zurn and Williamson waged a discrimination campaign against Matthew  starting in February 2012, including a series of randomly scheduled  meetings under the guise of discussing Matthew’s curriculum plans for  the coming year even though no other Pegasus teachers were asked to do so . It was during these meetings that  Zurn and Williamson harassment grew demanding to know Matthew’s reasons for personal time  off while criticizing his teaching methods for the first time in his  career, despite Matthew’s glowing 9-year teaching evaluations.