Former Hidalgo County judge alleges discrimination in Edinburg CISD employment suit
Former Hidalgo County Judge Jose “Eloy” Pulido sued Edinburg CISD last week, alleging the school district discriminated against him when he was employed in its transportation department.
Pulido, 69, served as a county judge from 1999 to 2003.
He lost his seat to Ramon Garcia, and lost subsequent bids for the position to Garcia and Richard Cortez in 2010 and 2018.
According to his suit, Pulido was an Edinburg CISD employee early in the 2000s and was rehired by the district as a transportation coordinator in 2019.
That relationship soured in 2023, the suit says, when Pulido filed an initial discrimination complaint against the district claiming it passed him over for an assistant transportation director position in favor of a younger woman he saw as less qualified.
That complaint resulted in retaliation and discrimination based on his age, disability and gender, Pulido claims.
A second complaint last year alleged Edinburg CISD placed Pulido in an “inferior workspace” that wasn’t conducive to meeting with employees after his office went to a superior and that it reduced his work so his position seemed unneeded, “awkwardly monitoring” the work he did do with video surveillance.
The district asked other employees about Pulido in a way that intimated he wasn’t present or diligent, his complaint says, and suggested he retire while directing reprimands and criticism toward him.
Pulido says he suffered from the onset of a “serious nervousness condition and headaches induced by stress at work” while employed by the district and that Edinburg CISD reversed courses on whether he was eligible for its sick bank program.
The district said he had been overpaid, Pulido claims, telling him he had to pay back “a considerable sum of money.”
After that, Pulido says he retired in June of last year, though he describes his exit as a constructive discharge.
Pulido is suing for damages up to one million dollars, along with legal fees.
This is going to be interesting based on the fact that a lot of people felt like his position was made up, and unnecessary. On top of that, there was a picture circulating, on Facebook, of him sleeping in his office; it should get really interesting …
I’m calling Bozo, Vela, Big George,Ronny, and Bobby P !
We got ur back Eloy!