A Pine Bluff School District employee has filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit against the Pine Bluff School District, former superintendents Jeremy Owoh and Babara Warren, former Arkansas Commissioner of Education Johnny Key, current PBSD superintendent Jennifer Barbaree and Monica McMurray.
Filed in U.S. District Court of Arkansas Central Division on Thursday by attorneys Luther Sutter and Lucien Gillham, the suit lists Pine Bluff High School assistant principal Dexter K. Lee as the plaintiff. According to the filing, Lee was also the district's human capital officer equivalent to an assistant superintendent.
Lee, a 10-year employee with the PBSD, claims policy violations that constituted discriminatory practices and favoritism with regard to jobs in the district, specifically violation of state law by failing to use veterans' preferences, discrimination and retaliation. The lawsuit says Owoh was the superintendent at the time of the alleged offense, and the other individual defendants are officials of the school district and made decisions regarding related matters.
Lee complained about the violations but nothing was done, according to the suit. In March 2019, Lee was given a Reduction in Force (RIF) letter stating that he was being removed as human capital officer, and his pay was cut. Since then, Lee has applied for the assistant superintendent position, for which he was denied.
Lee claims in his lawsuit that less-qualified white persons who had not exercised free speech rights by disclosing policy violations to the public were chosen for hire over him and numerous other Black applicants.
"The policy violations included illegal changes of policy documents, hiring practices that allowed the superintendent to arbitrarily determine individual salaries and refusal to adhere to RIF recall policies," said Lee, who added he reported his issues to the Arkansas Board of Education.
In a statement to the Pine Bluff Commercial, Lee said that after having received no response from Warren concerning his request for veterans' preference hiring documentation, he shared the online application in which he applied for the assistant superintendent's job on Feb. 9, 2022, with the state board.
He also saw the recommendations of others for the same position and shared with the state board that he looked up their licensure information in the Arkansas Department of Education's licensure system, where he found reasons to believe he was the better candidate based on tenure, experience and completed coursework designed for district administration, he said.
Lee believes that, as a means of retaliation, his secretary was removed, greatly increasing his workload. The filing states Lee's responsibility was supposed to be for the Patterson building at Pine Bluff High School and the Annex building's first floors, and that the interim principal was supposed to have the second floor. Instead, he claims, with no secretary, he has had the responsibility of both floors without pay or support.
According to Lee, last year the interim principal was an assistant principal. The year went so badly that the principal from last year had to be moved, he claimed. The then-assistant principal failed to perform, Lee alleged, but was still promoted to interim principal, and the job was never posted.
With more experience, Lee claims, he had performed better in the previous year but yet was not given the job. Lee is described as being subjected to unwarranted investigations.
The suit reads that two assistant superintendents were investigated over a student concern related to incidents where the students at issue were in clear violation of policy based on the existence of video and numerous witness conduct. Lee was investigated directly by two assistant superintendents, which he feels was unprecedented and unnecessary given the evidence supporting student misconduct, according to the suit.
According to Lee, Barbaree has stated that she is unilaterally going to decide where personnel will go without posting the jobs. He also said the current interim principal, who he feels is not doing their job, is now getting the principal position without applying for it.
Having been denied promotion based on protected speech, demonstration, petition, activity, and race, according to the filing, as a result, Lee has suffered lost wages, and benefits, he says in the lawsuit. He also claims he endured mental, emotional and physical suffering and embarrassment.
Lee said the defendant's actions were an "intentional, willful, reckless and malicious violation" of his rights under the law and is seeking compensatory damages in the amount exceeding that required for diversity jurisdiction, cleansing of his file, a public, written apology and press release, designation as re-hireable, other declaratory and injunctive relief, reasonable fees and costs and a jury trial.
A phone call to the PBSD's administration office was not returned.