Trial ordered in lawsuit where fired female AD alleges gender bias against Rock Hill Schools
A federal judge in South Carolina has rejected a recommendation to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former female athletic director in Rock Hill who claims sex and gender bias was the reason she was fired.
This week, U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs, a former contender for nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, ordered a trial in the lawsuit filed by former Northwestern High School AD Lauren West.
Childs rejected the recommendation of a lower magistrate judge that the lawsuit be dismissed, the court order states.
West sued the school district under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 federal law that requires equal treatment for all regardless of sex, gender or race.
A federal magistrate recommended in December that the lawsuit be dismissed because the district said West violated the district’s nepotism policy, court documents show. But Childs’ ruling supersedes the magistrate judge’s recommendation and sets the case for trial, the order states.
Childs wrote in the order that West has produced sufficient evidence for a jury to hear allegations that West was retaliated against because of her gender by the Rock Hill school district.
“The court is persuaded that Plaintiff (West) has produced evidence that would permit a reasonable fact finder to conclude that Defendant (Rock Hill schools) legitimate, non-discriminatory reason was a pretext for discrimination on the basis of sex and/or retaliation,” Childs wrote in the order.
West claims she was targeted because she’s a woman
Lauren West was the athletic director at Northwestern from 2011 until she 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.
West was the only woman athletic director among three at Rock Hill district high schools.
West claimed in the lawsuit she was treated differently and then 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, as well as unequal treatment among her male athletic director counterparts at the district’s two other high schools -- Rock Hill and South Pointe.
West also claims in the lawsuit that she was the target of staff who questioned her as a woman concerning football, court documents show.
Shannon Polvi, West’s lawyer, said West looks forward to having a jury of people from South Carolina hear the case.
“We are thankful for the opportunity to present Lauren West’s claims to a jury,” Polvi told The Herald Thursday. “Jury trials are a pillar of our government, but it can be difficult to get a jury trial in employment law cases. We appreciate that the Order and Opinion from the Honorable J. Michelle Childs will give Mrs. West the opportunity to tell her story to a jury of her peers.”
Efforts to seek comment from the Rock Hill school district and its lawyers were unsuccessful Thursday.
Judge was considered for U.S. Supreme Court
Childs was on the short list of candidates to be nominated in February by President Joe Biden to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Child’s was not nominated for the Supreme Court but remains a pending nominee for the federal court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. after she was nominated by Biden in January. Currently, she remains a District Court Judge for South Carolina.
Childs also is the judge who will decide prison sentencing in the federal criminal case of former Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood and two former deputies who were convicted of crimes in 2021. Childs was the trial judge in that case.
What happens now?
No trial date for West has been set.
This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 11:37 AM.
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