Former Lovejoy coach sues district

ALLEN -- A former Lovejoy High School girls basketball coach has taken her complaints off of the court and into the courtroom with a discrimination lawsuit filed against Lovejoy ISD Friday.

Kelly Connor coached the Lady Leopards from August 2010 to August 2011.

Her suit alleges she was discriminated against by district administrators and staff members based on her race, age and gender. The suit also claims she was reassigned to a lower-paying position in retaliation for formally complaining about the alleged mistreatment with the district and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.

The suit alleges district administrators and athletic department staff members subjected Connor, an African American, to a hostile work environment with "off-color remarks and ridicule." It also alleges staff members encouraged Connor to give white players more court time than African American players and threatened her with termination when she objected to the practice. Connor's daughter, Mikaehla, was one of the 13-person team's three African American players.

During her one year as a coach (2010-11), Connor received low ratings on performance reviews despite taking the team to the Class 3A State Finals, in which they lost to Abilene Wylie, 66-58. Prior to that, the Lady Leopards had never won a playoff game. She was reassigned to teach World History at the beginning of the 2011-12 school year and lost her $8,000-per-year coaching stipend. Her position as coach has since been filled by Nick Gauer.

The suit names Superintendent Ted Moore; Jim Bob Puckett, athletics director; and Bruce Coachman, executive director of administration and district effectiveness as three district employees who took discriminatory action starting around September 2010.

Hiram McBeth, Connor's attorney, said Connor was a victim of a "good ol' boy" environment that has attempted to "force her out" of employment with negative personnel actions.

"Her focus was winning games," McBeth said. "Her focus was elevating that particular program. Her focus was to achieve their objective using students without regard to their color, based on their ability."

Dennis Eichelbaum, the district's attorney, denied the allegations and said the district had legitimate grounds for reassigning Connor. While he said the district cannot make public the reasons for which Connor was transferred, he expects "most, if not all, of the suit" to be dismissed as soon as the district files a response.

"I'm not aware of any school district in Texas that would reassign a coach that brought their team all the way to the state finals unless there were other performance issues and it was in the best interest of the district, and that's what happened here," Eichelbaum said. "At the time she was hired, she was an African American woman, and to claim a year later ... that they suddenly realized she was a female African American and discriminated against her is something almost any person would find outrageous."

The suit is not the first of its kind for LISD.

In April 2010, the district was sued by Michael Cruz, a former band director at LHS, who alleged the district subjected him to "harassing, discriminatory and retaliatory treatment" based on his Hispanic origin, culminating in a series of demotions in which he was finally assigned to a third-level faculty position in the Sloan Creek Middle School music department. The case was settled in August 2010.

"We believe that her seeking legal counsel probably prevented [Connor] from being forced out, or at least held things in place until we can see what's going to happen here," McBeth said. "Lovejoy has always had the option of doing the right thing by her by putting her back in the position she was hired for in the first place."

Eichelbaum, however said it is his opinion that Connor filed the suit and EEOC claims to preempt the district from taking action against her for poor job performance.

"If she was doing her job, then she'd never have to worry about it," he said.

Current Rating: 3 of 4 votes!

Rate File: Select Rating: * ** *** ****

 Plano Apartments
 Plano Attorneys
 Plano Auto Dealers
 Plano Auto Parts
 Plano Auto Repair
 Plano Beauty Salons
 Plano Car Rental
 Plano Dentists
 Plano Doctors
 Plano Flowers
 Plano Hotels
 Plano Insurance
 Plano Loans
 Plano Mortgages
 Plano Movers
 Plano Pizza
 Plano Realtors
 Plano Restaurants
 Plano Storage
 Plano Tax Preparation
 Plano Travel
 Featured
 More...