U.S. Court To Hear Lawsuit Against Sdl
Posted on: Wednesday, 11 June 2008, 03:00 CDT
By Meadows, Robyn
A civil rights lawsuit filed against three former top city school officials in 2005 is heading to federal court early next year. The accused and the accuser - another former school official - no longer work in the district. Also named in the suit are the School District of Lancaster and a local auditing firm.
U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently ordered that four counts in the original complaint filed by former assistant superintendent Rose Sampson can go to trial next February.
In June 2005, Sampson was fired from her position in the School District of Lancaster. She filed the civil rights lawsuit in December 2005.
In her lawsuit, she seeks $1 million in damages.
The defendants are the school district, former superintendent Rita Bishop, former business manager Curt Baker, former federal compliance officer Robert Bourdeaux, and the auditing firm Reinsel Kuntz Lesher.
Defendants have denied the claims, according to court documents.
The following counts, according to court documents, go to trial:
,That Sampson was subjected to unreasonable search and seizure, a protection under the Fourth Amendment, during a near-midnight search in her office inside the district building without reason and permission.
Bishop, Baker and Bourdeaux were present during the search.
Sampson also alleges she was deprived of due process, a right under the Fourteenth Amendment, because the entry into the office was reported in the newspaper. As a result, she claims, her reputation was impugned.
,That her reputation was damaged. And, that Bishop acted with malice when she released a report that stemmed from records found during the late-night search, according to court documents.
In addition to Bishop, she claims that the author of the report, an employee at Reinsel Kuntz Lesher, issued a written report that falsely stated that she was not proactive enough in her duty to correct errors in the handling of Title I funds. She claims that she had no control over them, court documents state.
In its defense, the accounting and auditing firm, however, maintains that it only asserted an opinion, and it did not publish that opinion.
,Sampson also alleges that Bishop and the school district subjected her to a racially hostile environment.
The suit states that all white persons broke into the office of the plaintiff, the only black person on the School District's executive team, because of her race, thereby exacerbating a pre- existing racially hostile environment.
,And that when Bishop recommended that the board terminate her without cause, and it did, it was in retaliation for Sampson filing a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Shortly after Bishop and Sampson participated in an EEOC mediation conference, Sampson lost her job.
Her 2005 lawsuit seeks reinstatement to her former position. Sampson is currently the principal at Benjamin Franklin School in the Harrisburg School District.
Sampson could not be reached for comment. Her attorney, Anthony Jackson of Philadelphia, declined to comment.
Bishop resigned from Lancaster one year ago to take the superintendent position in Roanoke City Public Schools in Virginia.
I can't talk about pending legal matters, Bishop said.
Baker is now the deputy superintendent for operations in Roanoke. Bourdeaux has retired and lives in Lancaster.
Baker and Bourdeaux also declined to comment.
Glenna M. Hazeltine, attorney for the school officials and district, said, There is no basis for the complaints.
Joseph M. Oberlies, attorney for Reinsel Kuntz Lesher, could not be reached for comment.
Sampson joined the school district in July 2003, heading the Office of Teaching, which oversees curriculum, education programs and contracts.
Bishop started her position as superintendent in Lancaster in July 2004.
Around that time, school officials were conducting a long- running internal finance investigation, checking into, among other things, federal contracts overseen by Sampson's office.
In January 2005, Bishop, Baker and Bourdeaux, along with representatives from the accounting firm, entered the Office of Teaching and Learning located inside the building at Carter and MacRae Elementary School.
Bishop said they went in late at night to take custody of documents while no one was at work in order to protect the integrity of the audit.
The public found out about the search, though, when the officials triggered a security alarm. Bishop's electronic key card was outdated, according to newspaper archives.
Meanwhile, the judge has thrown out Sampson's claims that the district violated her contract and that it happened because of her race.
Sampson's contract stated that the district could fire her without cause.
(Copyright 2008 Lancaster Newspapers. All rights reserved.)
(c) 2008 Lancaster New Era. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Lancaster New Era
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