A former Mississippi State University employee alleges she was fired from her job last year after she filed sexual and racial harassment complaints against her co-workers.
In a federal lawsuit filed this week in the U.S. District Court of Northern Mississippi in Aberdeen, attorney Carlos Moore alleges MSU’s perceived retaliatory termination of former Family Consumer Science Extension Agent Elois Smith violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and her rights under the First and 14th amendments.
Along with the university as a whole, the lawsuit names four specific MSU employees as defendants: Reuben Moore, a Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (MAFES) associate director; Paula Threadgill, a MSU Extension Services associate director; Linda Mitchell, a MSU Extension Services regional coordinator; and Julia Rester, a senior human resources generalist.
The lawsuit does not specifically name those who allegedly sexually harassed Smith outside of “peers and superiors within MSU,” nor does it outline other specifics with those claims. It does, however, allege “defendants subjected” Smith to at least two specific racial slurs.
Smith seeks compensatory and punitive damages, along with attorney’s fees and other awards, through a jury trial.
A response to Smith’s lawsuit has not been filed, and a court date has not been set.
While the university does not comment on the specifics of ongoing litigation, Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter said MSU “will vigorously defend itself from the unfounded claims.”
A call to Carlos Moore went unreturned Thursday.
After Smith, an African-American woman, began working as an Extension agent in 2014, she “endured sexual harassment, hostility and racial insensitivity” and “began noticing that a majority of the African-American employees were terminated” from their positions, the lawsuit states.
Smith was disciplined and placed on administrative leave for eight weeks in January after a meeting with Threadgill, a meeting in which it was alleged Smith showed “unprofessional behavior toward a county Extension sponsor,” the lawsuit states.
That sponsor, however, denied the accusation after speaking to Smith and penned a letter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) supporting her claim of no wrongdoing, the lawsuit continues.
Smith then alleges she met with the defendants regarding her sexual harassment issues and was “advised that her pay would increase as an incentive to cease all assertions …,” and that management “excluded (her) from office planning meetings directly related to her position and instructed … co-workers to not associate with her.”
After filling a discrimination claim on or about Feb. 1, a March 9 meeting regarding Smith’s employment was held with the plaintiff and four defendants, the lawsuit alleges, and Smith was advised the defendants reviewed her job performance and determined “it would be in the best interest of the university to terminate her employment” for unprofessional behavior.
Smith then filed a second charge of discrimination based on the perceived retaliatory firing on March 21.
On Dec. 30, the EEOC issued a statement saying it was unable to conclude if Smith’s claims established a violation of statutes, the lawsuit states, but such a finding “does not certify that the respondent is in compliance” with the law.
Smith suffered “lost wages and benefits, and has sustained other pecuniary loss,” as well as “deep pain, humiliation, anxiety and emotional stress” due to sexual and racial discrimination, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also states she suffered from depression, insomnia, shock and humiliation due to the university’s actions.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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