Schools ask judge to drop bullying trial over racist remark

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) A Virginia school board on Thursday asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former vice-principal who claims she was harassed and humiliated after raising concerns about a mandatory teacher training program. teachers against racism.

Emily Mais, who worked at Agnor-Hurt Elementary School in Charlottesville, said in her lawsuit that she was bullied by some of her colleagues after accidentally using the term people of color during the last session of training in June 2021. Describing people as color is considered racist and has roots in the segregation-era South.

But said school officials did nothing to address her complaints that she was being harassed, even though she repeatedly apologized for what she called an inadvertent slip.

But the Albemarle County School Board sued after saying she felt pressured to resign in September 2021 due to a racially hostile work environment.

During a virtual U.S. District Court hearing on Thursday, Jeremy Capps, an attorney for the Albemarle County School Board, argued that the incidents described by But do not rise to the level of creating a work environment. hostile and that his case should be dismissed.

The fact that she uttered an offensive term or phrase and then was confronted with what she said was offensive language from her colleagues does not equate to a hostile work environment, said Caps.

But, who is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, said in her lawsuit that the problems started during the anti-racism training orientation, when the deputy superintendent responsible for implementing policy told staff to think about whether they were on the anti-racism school bus, or if it’s time for you to get off the bus.

For Miss Mais, those words were clear: Adopt the policy or risk your job, her lawyers argued in court papers.

But said after she misspoke in the last training session, a teacher’s aide refused to accept her apology, repeatedly berated her and accused her of racism in front of other members Staff.

She said that between the last session in June and her resignation in September, the teacher’s aide and other employees harassed her, called her a racist and falsely accused her of intentionally belittling black people. She said she had complained to a total of seven administrators, but no action had been taken to resolve the issues.

Mais’s attorney, lead alliance attorney Hal Frampton, asked Judge Norman Moon to dismiss the school board’s motion to dismiss his lawsuit, alleging that school officials had taken racist and of retaliation against her and created such a hostile work environment that she had no choice but to leave.

She is told again and again that her apology is not accepted and that she is a typical white racist, Frampton said.

But seeks back wages and damages for lost wages, emotional distress, pain and suffering.

Moon did not say when he would make his decision.

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