ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Orange County School Board is rejecting the resignation of a teacher who quit after a controversy over a letter that sparked heated debate about free speech and race.

The decision comes after an announcement that Jan Hall, 59, planned to file a $20 million lawsuit against board members.

---

LETTER: Read The Letter (.PDF file)
VIDEO: See The Story
VIDEO: Teacher Suspended

---

The Orange County School Board has six months to respond to the allegations that they intimidated and oppressed her.

"If your employer intentionally makes the conditions of your workplace so hostile that any reasonable person, in your shoes, would quit, then yes technically, she resigned," Hall's attorney Fred O'Neal said.

Hall was suspended without pay after a controversial letter was printed in the Spanish-language daily newspaper, El Nuevo Dia, spurring protests at Sadler Elementary School.

Addressed "Dear Honorable Congressman," the letter said Hispanics and other Caribbean natives were taking jobs and charged that Hispanics and immigrants were hurting schools.

The letter also charged that Puerto Ricans were destroying Orlando, and that laws should be changed so Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens by birth, would stop moving to Central Florida.

In Hall's lawsuit, the Orange County School Board is blamed for forcing her to resign.

The suit reads, "...you, nevertheless, chose to use her exercise of these clearly protected Constitutional rights as grounds to suspend her without pay, to publicly disparage and humiliate her, to demonize her in the Greater Orlando community..."

"They created an atmosphere where she is afraid for her physical safety," O'Neal said. "They demonized her in the community. They turned certain parts of this community against her that now hate her."

"I'm unaware of any school board members making any statements other than that the fact that they were going to wait to see the outcome of the investigation," Orange County School Board Attorney Frank Kruppenbacher said.

Hall's attorney also blames the newspapers that published the letter that was written to nine elected officials, including the governor and the president. So far, no one has admitted to receiving the letter and no one was admitted to leaking it.

"It was not her choice that her letter became public," O'Neal said. "It was someone else. And we will find out who that someone else is."

O'Neal said he will ask Gov. Jeb Bush to remove school board members and the superintendent.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.