Kirk Bohls
Former
Texas women’s track coach Bev Kearney has filed gender and race
discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission and the Texas Workforce Commission charging her former
employer with using a double standard.
The complaints are a prelude to a lawsuit, her attorney said Saturday.
Kearney, who won six national championships as a coach at Texas and who is black, resigned Jan. 5 after the disclosure that she had an inappropriate, intimate relationship with an athlete in her program in 2002.
Derek Howard, who represents Kearney, alleges that his client has been the victim of a double standard at the university. He claims he has knowledge of “in excess of 10” other instances of inappropriate relationships at Texas and said some of them are ongoing and others reach back a decade.
“I think the university turns a blind eye to these inappropriate relationships,” Howard told the Statesman. He offered no evidence of such relationships or details about the behaviors, and he declined to say whether they involved athletic department members.
In a statement released Saturday, Patti Ohlendorf, UT’s vice president for legal affairs, said, “The University reviews allegations and reports of unprofessional relationships on a case-by-case basis and did so after the (Kearney) relationship was reported to the Athletics administration last fall.”
Ohlendorf said Kearney and her lawyers were advised in late December that the university “was prepared to begin steps to terminate her employment because she had had a long-term, inappropriate relationship with a former student-athlete while the student-athlete was a member of her team.”
Ohlendorf said Kearney was offered an opportunity to “provide her side of the story and reasons that she should not be terminated.” She also was told she would have the opportunity to appeal any decision to terminate.
According to the UT statement Saturday, Kearney asked for a short time to consider the options and then resigned the next week.
Ohlendorf’s statement said, “Coach Kearney’s formal allegations of discrimination will be reviewed thoroughly and responded to according to EEOC and Texas Workforce Commission procedures.”
Howard said he filed the gender and race discrimination complaint with the federal and state agencies last Tuesday. Howard said his complaint will reference only Texas co-offensive coordinator Major Applewhite, who is white and who admitted to an inappropriate consensual relationship with a female student trainer in 2009.
The Applewhite incident came to light within a month of its occurrence. He was reprimanded in writing, and his salary was frozen for a specific period.
Howard said he met once with attorneys for Texas and the UT System for about an hour in early February, and he said he has not specifically tried to reach a financial settlement with Texas. But he did say he has hired an economist to calculate the damages and told him to be available to testify at a trial. Kearney was set to receive a raise and a contract extension when she was first put on administrative leave.
Asked what Kearney might be seeking, Howard said, “Our damages are very substantial.”
Howard said he has in general terms “informed UT that we have information about these relationships, and we’ve asked them to investigate. Have they? We don’t know.”
Howard said the EEOC and the Texas Workforce Commission are expected to investigate Kearney’s complaint during the next 180 days. After that, Howard said he will file litigation.
Open records requests by several newspapers asking for information about similar relationships between Texas employees and ensuing investigations turned up no disciplinary action taken against anyone.
“That tells me the double standard is well understood in the culture of life that is the University of Texas,” Howard said. “I find it preposterous from what we understand that these types of inappropriate relationships are apparently very common at UT-Austin, yet no one ever self-reports, and no one is ever reprimanded for having these relationships. There doesn’t appear to have been any investigations.”
For More Information Contact us at:
http://www.beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com/
The complaints are a prelude to a lawsuit, her attorney said Saturday.
Kearney, who won six national championships as a coach at Texas and who is black, resigned Jan. 5 after the disclosure that she had an inappropriate, intimate relationship with an athlete in her program in 2002.
Derek Howard, who represents Kearney, alleges that his client has been the victim of a double standard at the university. He claims he has knowledge of “in excess of 10” other instances of inappropriate relationships at Texas and said some of them are ongoing and others reach back a decade.
“I think the university turns a blind eye to these inappropriate relationships,” Howard told the Statesman. He offered no evidence of such relationships or details about the behaviors, and he declined to say whether they involved athletic department members.
In a statement released Saturday, Patti Ohlendorf, UT’s vice president for legal affairs, said, “The University reviews allegations and reports of unprofessional relationships on a case-by-case basis and did so after the (Kearney) relationship was reported to the Athletics administration last fall.”
Ohlendorf said Kearney and her lawyers were advised in late December that the university “was prepared to begin steps to terminate her employment because she had had a long-term, inappropriate relationship with a former student-athlete while the student-athlete was a member of her team.”
Ohlendorf said Kearney was offered an opportunity to “provide her side of the story and reasons that she should not be terminated.” She also was told she would have the opportunity to appeal any decision to terminate.
According to the UT statement Saturday, Kearney asked for a short time to consider the options and then resigned the next week.
Ohlendorf’s statement said, “Coach Kearney’s formal allegations of discrimination will be reviewed thoroughly and responded to according to EEOC and Texas Workforce Commission procedures.”
Howard said he filed the gender and race discrimination complaint with the federal and state agencies last Tuesday. Howard said his complaint will reference only Texas co-offensive coordinator Major Applewhite, who is white and who admitted to an inappropriate consensual relationship with a female student trainer in 2009.
The Applewhite incident came to light within a month of its occurrence. He was reprimanded in writing, and his salary was frozen for a specific period.
Howard said he met once with attorneys for Texas and the UT System for about an hour in early February, and he said he has not specifically tried to reach a financial settlement with Texas. But he did say he has hired an economist to calculate the damages and told him to be available to testify at a trial. Kearney was set to receive a raise and a contract extension when she was first put on administrative leave.
Asked what Kearney might be seeking, Howard said, “Our damages are very substantial.”
Howard said he has in general terms “informed UT that we have information about these relationships, and we’ve asked them to investigate. Have they? We don’t know.”
Howard said the EEOC and the Texas Workforce Commission are expected to investigate Kearney’s complaint during the next 180 days. After that, Howard said he will file litigation.
Open records requests by several newspapers asking for information about similar relationships between Texas employees and ensuing investigations turned up no disciplinary action taken against anyone.
“That tells me the double standard is well understood in the culture of life that is the University of Texas,” Howard said. “I find it preposterous from what we understand that these types of inappropriate relationships are apparently very common at UT-Austin, yet no one ever self-reports, and no one is ever reprimanded for having these relationships. There doesn’t appear to have been any investigations.”
For More Information Contact us at:
http://www.beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com/
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment