An attorney for former Thomas Worthington High School dean Marilyn Hamilton has lodged a discrimination complaint against the school district.

 

As of Tuesday morning, no lawsuit had been filed, but the Worthington Board of Education planned to discuss the issue with its attorney during a meeting set for 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Hamilton's attorney, Pat Kasson, reportedly presented the complaint to school district's attorneys last week. Attorneys routinely present complaints to other attorneys to try to settle disagreements out of court.

Nick Pittner, an attorney for Bricker and Eckler, representing the schools, planned to discuss the complaint with the board in closed session, school board president Jennifer Best said on Tuesday.

"At this point, it is just a few attorneys kind of talking and I don't know where it will go from here," she said.

Pittner told the board not to discuss the complaint. Until a lawsuit is filed, the complaint is privileged information between attorneys and the board, Best said.

Hamilton, who successfully sued the district for racial discrimination in 1997, was asked to step down from the dean's position by principal Jim Gaskill last spring.

She has since accepted a position teaching special education at the school for the coming year.

Football coach Scott Gordon was hired by Gaskill to replace Hamilton as dean. Gordon took over as varsity football coach last year, but continued to teach at Whitehall High School.

Hamilton, 58, said during an interview following a board meeting in May that she was "insulted" by what she considered an involuntary transfer motivated by age and sex discrimination.

At the meeting, several members of the Worthington Alliance of African-American Parents urged the board to look into the situation and suggested that the transfer might be racially motivated.

It is not clear what kind of discrimination is being alleged in the complaint.

Gaskill, who took over as Thomas Worthington principal a year ago, denied that his request that Hamilton step down reflected any kind of bias. He said he was simply trying to build a new administrative team at the high school.

Hamilton had informed him that she planned to retire after the 2008-09 school year, and he wanted to establish a long-term team, he said.

He acknowledged in May that he might hire Gordon. The board approved Gordon's new position as Thomas Worthington dean at its June 23 meeting.

Best and board member Marc Schare said they discussed the personnel moves with Gaskill and were satisfied that he did the right thing.

"My reaction is that to my knowledge, nothing even close to resembling age discrimination or racial discrimination took place," Schare said.

Gaskill would have done the same thing if Hamilton were 21 and told the principal she planned to leave at the end of the coming year, Schare said.

If Hamilton is claiming racial discrimination, that is "offensive," Schare added.

Hamilton declined to be interviewed for this story. Her attorney was out of town.

Hamilton has worked for the district since 1989, first as a reading teacher. She has been dean of students for the past four years.

In 1997, Hamilton filed suit against the district, contending that she had been subjected to racial slurs, harassment and hate mail throughout most of her 11 years at the school. She claimed that administrators failed to take her complaints seriously.

She was awarded a $75,000 settlement in 2000.

In May, Hamilton said she had been treated well at the school since then.