ACLU sues school district to stop retaliation against teacher for championing equal funding for girls’ sports
Aug. 4, 2000
MONTGOMERY – The ACLU of Alabama on Aug. 2, 2000, filed a challenge to Dale County School System’s discrimination against a substitute schoolteacher. The lawsuit, filed in the United States Federal Court for the Middle District of Alabama, claims that Dale County school officials violated Delaine Robson’s free speech rights when they retaliated against her for complaining that girls sports at Dale County High School were not funded equally in violation of federal law. The Dale County Board of Education, Superintendent Ronnie Jackson, and Dale County High School Principal Eddie Wright are named as defendants.
Robson worked regularly as a substitute teacher with the Dale County Board of Education until March 1999. She had been told repeatedly she was doing a good job and was never reprimanded or disciplined in any way. In February 1999 the athletic director of Dale County High School informed the coach for girls softball and volleyball that those girls sports would have to be self-supporting, although the school funded boys sports.
Concerned that the differential funding was illegal, Robson asked for copies of the budget and, subsequently, permission to speak to the Board of Education. Copies of the budget were never provided. The day following her request to speak to the Board, Principal Wright terminated Robson’s employment. Robson went to Superintendent Jackson, who refused to overturn the termination.
Robson then filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights describing the funding disparities and her termination for attempting to address the problem. The Office for Civil Rights investigated and found the Dale County School System was not providing equivalent benefits, opportunities, and treatment to female student athletes at Dale County High.
Following the investigation, the Dale County Board of Education agreed to correct the inequalities in its treatment of female student athletes, to return Robson’s name to the roster of substitute teachers, and to refrain from discouraging schools from requesting her to work. The defendants failed to comply with the terms of the agreement. Robson’s name was placed back on the list of substitute teachers only after she discovered it had not been placed there as called for by the agreement. Defendants continued to discourage schools to call upon her to work. As a consequence, Robson’s employment as a substitute teacher has declined.
Robson is asking the court to find that defendants have violated her federal statutory and constitutional rights; to prevent defendants from continuing to violate her rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; and for monetary damages, attorney’s fees and costs.
The case, Robson v. Dale County Board of Education, has been assigned to United States Magistrate Judge Susan Russ Walker. ACLU of Alabama cooperating attorneys William Messer and Robert Varley of Montgomery represent Robson.
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