CLARKSBURG — A woman was suing the West Virginia University Board of Governors claiming that she was discriminated against while working at Potomac State College.
The case eventually was dismissed.
Dr. Gregory Ochoa, who was Potomac State College Dean of Academic Affairs, also was anamed as a defendant in the suit.
Jennifer Merrifield Poole was employed by the board of governors as an assistant professor of English beginning on Aug. 16, 2007, according to a complaint filed in Monongalia Circuit Court. It was later removed to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
Poole claimed she began receiving in vitro fertilization procedures on Dec. 10, 2019. She says she was receiving the treatments at a clinic in Oklahoma and was away from campus at various times.
In January 2019, she says she selected only online courses to teach for the semester.
Ochoa, however, did not approve of her not being physically present on campus throughout the week and informed her that she would be terminated in Fall 2020 if she did not comply, according to the suit. Poole claims the university even has a policy that states that she did not have to maintain physical presence Monday through Friday on campus.
Poole claimed she was the only faculty member who was targeted to be on campus every day.
After the case was removed to federal court, the plaintiff and the defendants came to an agreement and the case was dismissed.
Poole and the defendants "respectfully inform this Court that all issues and disputes in the above-style civil action have been compromised and settled."
"Pursuant to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Parties jointly move this Honorable Court to dismiss, with prejudice, all of Plaintiff’s claims asserted in this civil action, with each party bearing their own costs and expenses," the agreed dismissal order states.
The case was dismissed with prejudice and stricken from the docket.
Poole was seeking compensatory damages. She is represented by Erika Klie Kolenich of Klie Law Offices in Buckhannon.
The defendants are represented by Julie A. Moore and Lindsay M. Gainer of Bowles Rice.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number: 1:21-cv-00064