Blacksburg discrimination lawsuit heads to trial

A judge has scaled back, but declined to dismiss, a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by a former public school library assistant in Blacksburg over what she called unwanted Christian overtures by her former supervisor.

The facts of the 2008 case pit Judith Scott, a former library assistant at Blacksburg Middle School, who says she is “spiritual” but disavows being “Christian,” against Nina Donohoe, the librarian at the time and a Christian who attended an evangelical church. The two worked together for years but experienced significant conflicts during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years, according to filings in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

In her suit against the Montgomery County School Board, Scott says she was discriminated against, to the point of losing her job, because she did not share her supervisor’s religious beliefs. Scott’s suit is based on prohibitions in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against employment discrimination based on religion.

Scott, who worked at the school from 1992 until 2006, found notes, prayer lists and religious materials in areas where she worked throughout the time Donohoe was her supervisor and received multiple invitations to prayer from Donohoe, the ruling said. She says she told Donohoe she wasn’t interested.

As part of Scott’s trial evidence, Scott’s attorney wants to present some examples of the materials, including a CD and book by the evangelical Christian author and speaker Joyce Meyer.

The school board contends that both women subscribed to the same faith and that many of Scott’s actions led Donohoe to reasonably believe Scott was open to her religious overtures.

For instance, Donohoe’s attorneys said Scott, rather than decline the Joyce Meyer items, said thank you when she received them. In fact, on various occasions Scott “made references to religion in a positive way” and described Donohoe in a greeting card as her “Christian sister.”

Donohoe, who is not named as a defendant in the suit, denied committing harassment or discrimination, and school officials agreed. Scott lost her job in 2006 because of poor performance, the board contends.

Judge James Turk on Aug. 5 declined a school board request to dismiss the case.

In a 26-page ruling, Turk said he agreed with the board that nothing Scott said Donohoe did was so severe that a person in Scott’s position would have been unable to perform her duties. He dismissed one legal claim of the case.

However, Turk let stand claims for religious discrimination and retaliation. Turk said a jury could possibly resolve a host of disputed facts to find that Donohoe knew her religious overtures bothered Scott and continued with them anyway and that, when Scott pushed back with informal and official complaints about her, Donohoe evaluated her more harshly to the point that higher-ups terminated Scott.

Turk called the evidence that Scott was fired because she rejected the religious overtures “weak.” He said he found it curious, for instance, that Scott did not allege religious harassment by Donohoe until after she received negative feedback about her job performance in August 2005.

But the judge concluded the positions staked out by Scott and the board each had enough merit to hold a trial.

Turk said the school system documented deficiencies in Scott’s work, including attendance issues, failure to cooperate and insubordination. After these and other points were passed up the chain of command, the school board voted to not renew her annual contract.

However, Turk said it’s worth noting that the board action against Scott was based in significant part on Donohoe’s assessments. In addition, the school’s principal and assistant principal, who recommended firing Scott, immediately wrote flattering letters of recommendation for her after she lost her job, Turk said.

One predicted Scott “will prove to be a valuable asset to any organization.”

No trial date has been set.

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