Lee’s Summit college district should shell out $275,000 to settle race discrimination lawsuit

Jan. 28—A Black woman has gained a $275,000 settlement from the Lee’s Summit faculty district following she filed a lawsuit claiming she wasn’t employed because of her race.

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In her 2019 suit, Danielle Nixon explained she was not picked as the spokeswoman for the predominantly white suburban district since the former superintendent, who also is Black, experienced worries about her race.

The career, which had been held for quite a few decades by a white female, was stuffed in 2018 by Kelly Wachel, who is white. Wachel left the district the subsequent year and is now chief advertising and marketing and communications officer for Kansas Metropolis General public Educational facilities.

The go well with stated that then-Superintendent Dennis Carpenter informed the district’s assortment committee that he would “under no circumstances employ the service of an African American woman for that critical function.” Getting rid of out on the place and later on mastering that her race was a factor fearful Nixon, induced Nixon terrific anxiety and she “shed rest around irrespective of whether she could go after her profession,” the fit said.

Initially, Nixon filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Option Commission and the Missouri Commission on Human Legal rights. Nine months later on, she sued the district. She is now the head of communications for the Raytown faculty district.

The Lee’s Summit district declined to concern a statement on the settlement. “We do not comment on litigation,” claimed Katy Bergen, the district’s present-day spokeswoman.

As section of the settlement, reached in November, “Nixon agrees in no way to request employment with the district at any time in the future.” And it states that payment is “no admission of liability or wrongdoing” on the portion of the district. Of the payment, $167,939 went to Nixon and $107,060 to her attorney, Williams Dirks Dameron.

Carpenter, the district’s very first Black superintendent, resigned in July 2019 soon after clashing for a number of months with the then-all-white school board over variety instruction. The board agreed to get Carpenter out of his contract for $750,000.

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