HollyMatkinRoanoke, VA – A Virginia woman claimed she was fired from her job as a family service specialist with the City of Roanoke on Friday, solely because she possessed a concealed weapon permit.
Storm Durham, 22, who also goes by the name of Chelsea, denied having ever taken a weapon to her place of employment.
In social media posts that explained what happened, Durham said that her termination hinged only on the fact that a concealed weapon permit had been issued to her.
“I was fired today. From Roanoke City Social Services, serving as a damn good social worker,” Durham posted to Twitter. “I was fired for having a concealed carry permit. Not the gun, the permit. I was escorted by 3 city police officers [because] I am a ‘safety risk to the building.’”
“They said it was a safety factor,” Durham told Big League Politics on Saturday. “She [my supervisor] said, ‘You’re a safety risk to our building due to having a concealed carry permit.’”
She pointed out that she had never brought her weapon onto the property.
“She said, ‘How do I know that?’” Durham recounted. “I said, ‘Search me!’”
Durham said that Roanoke Social Services provided her with a list of reasons for her termination, but that she won’t release that paperwork until her legal counsel determines it is appropriate.
She noted that the list included allegations that she failed to conduct a required number of daily visits with children and families on her caseload, but she argued that she had doctors’ notes to explain those absences from work, the Inquisitr reported.
Durham said that she was also faulted for wearing loafers to a training session, in violation of the department’s dress code.
According to Big League Politics, Durham said that she believed her employer became aware of her concealed permit status after a conversation they had approximately two months ago.
“My supervisor called me in and said do you feel safe in your home?” Durham said.
“I said, ‘Of course. My boyfriend has no criminal record or anything.’ He said, ‘Well, we found out there are guns in your home.’ I said, ‘And? What’s the correlation? There have always been guns in my home since I was a little kid!’” she recalled.
Durham argued that her termination was a violation of her Second Amendment rights, but noted that she did not want to return to her job because she does “not want to work for those liberals,” according to one of her Facebook live videos.
However, she does want the public to understand what the city has done to a law-abiding gun owner, she said.
“The Roanoke City Department of Social Services should be ashamed of themselves,” Durham wrote in her statement. “They should be publically known that they did this.”
“They fired a innocent, clean record, white, female, college graduate who works for a living for legally having, and owning a gun…[that] was NEVER on their property or in their building. A gun that was never used for evil, but as protection as I am a survivor or sexual assault.”
On Saturday, the City of Roanoke issued a statement to local media outlets regarding Durham’s termination, she said in a Facebook live video.
“They said it didn’t happen,” she summarized.
According to Blue Virginia, the city noted that it would not “publically comment on specific personnel matters,” but that the “dismissal in question was not based upon anyone’s exercise” of their constitutional rights.
“The fact that the Roanoke City Police Department is saying this did not happen is absolutely absurd,” she posted to Facebook on Monday. “Pull the cameras, ask around. They were outside the directors office, they armed my office while I had to clean it out, and escorted me out. For the police department to lie breaks my heart. I’ve always been a big supporter of Blue, but after this I have to wonder.”
In a Sunday Facebook live video, Durham ran down a long list of the interviews and sit-downs she has scheduled since she was fired. She also addressed accusations that she was being dishonest about the background that led up to her losing her job.
One Facebook user claimed that “several Roanoke city employees” recently witnessed Durham “drunk and screaming” at a bar, and that she “still might have some assault charges brought against her for that incident.”
“The whole story will come out and her woe-is-me story will be seen for what it truly is,” the user noted. “That is a young attention seeking woman with some serious mental issues was rightfully let go from a job that takes some serious mental stability and grit. Of which she has neither.”
Another Facebook user, “Ben S Jackson,” claimed to have more specific knowledge as to what had been going on inside Durham’s office.
“You sure this has nothing to do with you dating a psychopath?” Jackson wrote. “Cause your boy brought a gun to DSS when you got in trouble. He also threatened to slit the throat of another worker.”
“Also, you are emotionally unstable and shouldn’t be around children. AT ALL,” he continued. “How many times do you need to lock yourself in an office and throw a fit because you were corrected?”
Another social media user argued that Durham “is not who she is claiming to be.”
“She was fired from 3 different daycares and had to be escorted out of them by the police because she threw a fit and locked herself into a room with the children,” the commenter claimed, recounting a history of “shoddy work performance,” and “dramatic” behaviors.
The poster alleged that the problems continued when Durham was hired at Roanoke City Social Services.
“She was a nightmare and would not listen to any redirection,” the post read. “[She was] unethical in her approach to child welfare…she didn’t understand our job or the scope of it.”
“When she was corrected, she would throw royal fits and lock herself into an abandoned office and scream and cry like a toddler,” the post continued.
The commenter also claimed that Durham got into a fight at a bar with the wife of a married man, and that Durham’s boyfriend threatened to slit the throat of one of Durham’s coworkers.
“No one wants an unhinged, hysterical person around children that have already been through trauma,” the post concluded. “Even less so an unhinged, hysterical person with a gun.”
In her Facebook live videos, Durham brushed aside the allegations and criticisms, and claimed she did not know Ben Jackson or the other individuals who were attempting to discredit her.
“I know my story is 100 percent true,” she said in a Facebook live video on Sunday afternoon. “I know my facts are 100 percent true, and y’all can say what you want.”
She said she was not okay with being bullied, however, and specifically addressed those who have told her she should “go die.”
“What if I went and killed myself right now?” she asked. “That blood would be on your hands…So just think about that next time you tell me to go die.”
Durham said that she planned to launch a new YouTube channel called “The Conservative Storm,” and that she would like to become a spokesperson for the NRA.