Fired Northwestern athletic director sex bias lawsuit should be dismissed, judge says
.jpeg "A fired woman athletics head sued the Rock Hill School District claiming sex discrimination. A federal judge has offered a recommendation to dismiss the case.")
A federal judge has recommended dismissal of a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a former athletic director who says she was fired at a high school in Rock Hill based on her gender.
However, the lawyer for former Northwestern High School AD Lauren Massey West said she disagrees with the ruling and will ask another judge to not accept the ruling. Lauren West will continue to seek a jury trial.
U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Kaymani West issued a recommendation Monday afternoon that would dismiss the lawsuit Lauren West filed in 2020 against the Rock Hill school district. West wrote evidence shows Lauren West was not fired from the school district because of her gender. The judge also stated evidence shows Lauren West was not fired as retaliation for her complaints about sex bias in the workplace.
The school district denied Lauren West’s claims of gender bias and asked in court documents for the case to be dismissed. Judge West’s recommendation sides with the school district’s request to have the case dismissed before trial through a dismissal called summary judgment.
“The undersigned recommends granting Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment based on the legitimate reasons Defendant offered in support of terminating Plaintiff, and Plaintiff’s failure to rebut the same,” Judge West wrote Monday.
The magistrate judge’s ruling to dismiss must be confirmed by a U.S. District Court judge, who can then dismiss the lawsuit or allow the case to go forward to trial, according to Lauren West’s lawyer, Shanon Polvi. No date was set for U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs to rule on the proposed dismissal.
In most districts, magistrate judges handle pretrial motions and hearings in civil and criminal cases, according to the United State Courts website.
Polvi said in a written statement to The Herald that she plans to ask that the magistrate judge’s recommendation not be accepted.
“Though we are disappointed in the Report and Recommendation (R&R), it is not the end of the case,” Polvi wrote in an emailed statement to The Herald. “Procedurally, we have the opportunity to respectfully object to portions of the R&R with which we disagree. We will do so and therein request that the District Court Judge not adopt the summary judgment recommendations and allow this case to proceed to a jury trial.”
Marshall Newton of Columbia, lead lawyer for the Rock Hill school district, declined comment on the case because it is pending.
Lauren West lawsuit timeline
Lauren West was fired in 2019. The Herald first reported she was placed on administrative leave in August 2019 before she was terminated. The Herald also first reported that she filed the lawsuit in 2020.
Lauren West claimed in the lawsuit she was treated differently — and ultimately fired — because she is a woman. West alleged the Northwestern principal and district management fired her because she complained about unequal treatment compared to male staff counterparts at Northwestern, and her male athletic director counterparts at the district’s two other high schools, Rock Hill and South Pointe.
However, the judge ruled on Monday the district fired her because of violations of a nepotism policy (from the use of family members working at games) and because of her overall performance as AD — which were the original reasons offered by the district for why West was fired, documents state.
Federal law states it is illegal to discriminate against employees based on gender, race or religion.
Lauren West was athletic director at Northwestern from 2011 until she was fired in 2019.
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 1:42 PM.
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