Man sues school board for sexual discrimination

Efforts to settle a lawsuit alleging that a local man was denied a teaching job as a kindergarten teacher because of his gender have failed, and the case appears headed for trial on Sept. 6 in U.S. District Court in London.
“We had a settlement conference between the parties yesterday with Magistrate Judge J.B. Johnson, and were unable to resolve it,” Tim Crawford, an attorney representing the Whitley County Board of Education, said May 12. “At this point it appears that we will try it before a judge.”
On Aug. 3, 2004, Dwayne Lee filed suit against the board alleging that he filed an employment application with the board in June 2003, and that the following January he was denied a kindergarten teaching position at Poplar Creek Elementary School because of his gender.
In December 2003, Lee took actions to ensure that he was considered as a candidate for the teaching position, including delivering a letter of interest for the teaching position to Superintendent Lonnie Anderson, speaking to all members of the school’s site-based council, and talking to Principal Tom Shelley, including a telephone conversation on Dec. 9, 2003, the lawsuit stated.
“In that conversation Shelley told plaintiff that he would consider only a female for the position at issue,” the lawsuit alleges.
On Dec. 15, 2003, Shelley made the decision to hire Suzette Jones to fill the position, which she assumed on Jan. 5, 2004.
The lawsuit alleges that since August 1997, Lee had been properly certified as an early elementary teacher in kindergarten through fourth grade, and that Jones wasn’t certified when Shelley made the decision to hire her after having just completed her student teaching obligations.
“Defendant failed and/or refused to hire plaintiff for the teaching position because plaintiff is a male,” the lawsuit contends. “To date, defendant Whitley County has failed to interview or hire plaintiff for any teaching position or other employment position.
“By this action, plaintiff seeks all appropriate damages recoverable under Title VII, including damages for back and future pay, damages for past, present, and future embarrassment, humiliation, emotional distress, damages for other losses occasioned by defendant Whitley County’s behavior, and all recoverable attorney fees and costs.”
In their response to the lawsuit, the board acknowledges that Shelley hired Jones after reviewing all applications and consulting with the site based decision making council, but denies that Shelley told Lee that he would only consider hiring a woman for the position.
Lee had previously worked at Poplar Creek Elementary from July 1997 through June 2000 as a teacher.
“His teaching qualifications and abilities were well known prior to the plaintiff resigning to take employment in Lexington, Kentucky in June 2000,” Crawford wrote in the answer to the complaint.
The trial before Judge Danny C. Reeves is expected to last three days, according to federal court records.