$205,506 Federal Court Verdict Against Miss. Dept. of Education for Racial Discrimination
Last week the Clarion-Ledger reported on a $205,506 federal court jury verdict for Melissa Ross, who alleged that she was wrongfully fired from the Mississippi School for the Deaf because she is black. The jury awarded Ross $40,506 for back pay and $165,000 for pain and suffering/ mental anguish/ loss of enjoyment of life/ emotional pain. Here is the Form of the Verdict on file with the Court.
The C-L article states:
According to the lawsuit, Ross was hired at the deaf school as a special education teacher for Family Consumer Science. She was not proficient in sign language but was trying to improve, according to the lawsuit.
In a 2007 complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Ross said she was hired in August 2006 and was promoted with a raise in February 2007. But in May 2007, she was given a bad evaluation because she was not proficient in sign language and was told she would be fired that July, according to the complaint.
In the complaint, Ross pointed out six black teachers were fired effective July 2007.
The Department of Education was successful in getting some of the claims thrown out in a motion for partial summary judgment. Here is the Court’s Order on that motion.
Michael Brown of Jackson represented the plaintiff. Peter Cleveland with the Miss. Attorney General’s office represented the Department of Education.
The case was in the Jackson Division and was tried before Judge Henry Wingate.
