The Cherokee County Board of Education is reportedly being sued by one of its employees.
According to a report by al.com Rashida Dupree filed her lawsuit in federal court November 15th under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – which states that employees cannot be discriminated against because of race, sex, color, origin, or religion.
According to that suit, Dupree is black and works as a Title I Facilitator at the County Board of Education, where she has been employed since 2006.
She is certified by the state Department of Education to serve as an administrator in public schools and is qualified to work as an assistant principal in public schools; she also has a number of college degrees, including a master’s degree, and additional state certifications.
Dupree claims in the lawsuit that she has applied for at least 19 administrative positions in the Cherokee County school system since 2011, and wasn’t hired for any of those positions; adding that the board hired a white person instead for each of those jobs.
Dupree specifically cites her 2015 application for the assistant principal position at Spring Garden School. Her lawsuit states that a white woman – who wasn’t certified by the state’s Department of Education at the time, and also had fewer qualifications – was hired instead.
In July 2018, Dupree filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. About that same time, the reading coach at Centre Elementary School retired. Both that job and the job Dupree held at the time were both nine-month positions, and the “promotion to the position of reading coach would result in increased prestige and/or responsibility,” the lawsuit states. Dupree told the school’s principal she was interested in the reading coach position, but according to the lawsuit the principal “denied [Dupree’s] request for an interview and revealed that he already selected a white, less-experienced, less-qualified person for the position. The Cherokee County Board of Education hired [the principal’s] selection for the position.”
Dupree is suing under Title VII for disparate treatment and retaliation and under race discrimination.
(al.com/www.al.com)