BATON ROUGE — A former BREC employee is continuing her fight to get her job back, saying she was wrongfully terminated for refusing to follow improper financial orders.

Friday marked the second day of testimony before the BREC Board of Commissioners in the appeal hearing for Tonya Smith, who stood her ground after being told to use new budget funds to pay old invoices.

“We have a 2024–25 contract, and then we have a 2025–26 contract. What I’ve been stating is that we cannot use the 2025–26 funds to pay old invoices from 2024–25,” Smith said. 

Tensions rose when Interim Superintendent Janet Simmons took the stand. Simmons said that Smith’s supervisor, Raharold Lawson, was involved in the decision to fire her, but Smith challenged that claim.

“We ended up finding out that my supervisor wasn’t even included in the meetings or the decision to terminate me,” Smith said.

Later, BREC Human Resources Director Corey Luttrell confirmed that Lawson was not in the meeting when the decision was made.

“It wasn’t his decision to terminate me,” Smith said. “It was hers and he’s having to defend himself.”

Smith has since filed an ethics complaint accusing Simmons of abusing her authority by taking part in her appeal, despite being the one who made the original termination decision.

“The fact that you had me terminated and then you upheld my appeal is definitely a conflict of interest, and definitely an abuse of power,” Smith said.

Despite the tense exchanges, Smith said she’s confident the truth will prevail.

“I knew that I stood on principle and that I was actually doing what was right, so I decided to stand my ground and fight,” Smith said. 

The BREC Commission went into executive session Friday afternoon and is expected to issue a decision on Smith’s job status in the coming days.

BREC Interim Superintendent Janet Simmons declined to comment until a decision is made.