BLUEFIELD – A former McDowell County teacher and coach claims he was a victim of racial discrimination and defamation.
James Melvin DeWitt Sr. filed his complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia against the county Board of Education, which denies the allegations and seeks to have the case dismissed.
According to his pro se complaint, DeWitt is a black man who was employed by the McDowell County school board as an instructor of law and public safety and basketball coach for four years until he was forced to resign July 4, 2018.
On January 4, 2019, he filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging racial discrimination.
“During his four years with the McDowell County Board of Education, defendants created an environment which encouraged and fostered a hostile work environment for plaintiff due to his race,” the complaint states. “Such conduct was ongoing, open and notorious.
“Simply put, racial discrimination is deeply embedded with the McDowell County Board of Education. It is open, active and unashamed. The harassment, abuse and discrimination are encouraged by defendant’s refusal to stop the misbehavior.”
DeWitt claims black employees were subjected to a stricter level of scrutiny than white co-workers, saying the black employees were repeatedly reprimanded for relative minor mistakes while the same behavior by white employees was largely ignored.
He says he was called into a meeting in April 2018 with the superintendent, vice superintendent and principal regarding text messages between DeWitt and a female student.
“Plaintiff structured his Law & Public Safety class like a work environment,” he wrote. “This included teaching accountability and work ethics to his students. Plaintiff required students to contact him via text or call when they were not going to be present in class, just like an employee would do at a real job.”
He says he was not given the chance to be explain his position at the meeting. Instead, he was suspended for five days with pay.
In its answer, the board says there was a meeting about “a female student’s complaints of inappropriate behavior by plaintiff.”
For a hearing before the board, DeWitt says he didn’t hire counsel because he felt he did nothing wrong.
“Plaintiff heard rumors prior to the hearing suggesting that the board had already chosen his replacement,” DeWitt wrote. “The replacement was a board member’s son. Under these circumstances, plaintiff knew there was no way he would receive a fair and impartial hearing and felt he had no other choice to resign to sustain his benefits.”
In its answer, the board says the hearing was continued at least two time at the request of DeWitt and his then-counsel, who later said he no longer would be representing DeWitt.
DeWitt claims the board published false, defamatory statements about him including that he was terminated for inappropriate text messages with a student. He also says the board provided false statements about him to potential employers. As a result, he says he has suffered compensatory damages such as injury to his character and reputation, mental anguish, loss of income and loss of earning capacity. He also says the board is guilty of intentional infliction of emotional distress.
But, the board denies DeWitt’s claims and seeks to have the case dismissed and for DeWitt to pay its court costs.
The board is being represented by Robert J. Kent of Bowles Rice’s Parkersburg office.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 1:20-cv-00309
