Jones v. Birdsong

• Decision Date: 02 June 1980
• Docket Number: No. DC 77-94-K.,DC 77-94-K.
• Citation: 530 F. Supp. 221
• Parties: Verdia JONES, Plaintiff, v. Robert BIRDSONG, Leon Porter, Jr., Glenn D. Gates, Mayo Wilson, Jessie G. Hughes, Jr., Individually and in their official capacities as Members of the Board of Trustees of the Clarkdale Municipal Separate School District, Robert M. Ellard, Individually and in his official capacity, Superintendent of Education of the Clarksdale Municipal Separate School District, Terry Mood, Principal Clarksdale High School, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Mississippi

530 F. Supp. 221

Verdia JONES, Plaintiff, v. Robert BIRDSONG, Leon Porter, Jr., Glenn D. Gates, Mayo Wilson, Jessie G. Hughes, Jr., Individually and in their official capacities as Members of the Board of Trustees of the Clarkdale Municipal Separate School District, Robert M. Ellard, Individually and in his official capacity, Superintendent of Education of the Clarksdale Municipal Separate School District, Terry Mood, Principal Clarksdale High School, Defendants.

No. DC 77-94-K.

United States District Court, N. D. Mississippi, Delta Division.

June 2, 1980.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Charles Victor McTeer, Greenville, Miss., for plaintiff.

Semmes Luckett, Clarksdale, Miss., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

KEADY, Chief Judge.

On September 23, 1977, plaintiff Verdia Jones, a black former employee of the Clarksdale Municipal Separate School District, instituted this employment discrimination suit against the defendants, Robert Birdsong, Leon Porter, Jr., Glenn D. Gates, Mayo Wilson, Jessie G. Hughes, Jr., members of the school board in their official capacities and individually, Robert M. Ellard, superintendent of education, in his official capacity and individually, and Terry Mood, principal of the Clarksdale High School, seeking reinstatement, back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees and costs. The complaint as amended alleged federal jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343(3) and (4) for causes of action arising under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., the Civil Rights Statutes, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983, the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment, and the desegregation order of this court entered January 10, 1970, in Henry v. Clarksdale Municipal Separate School District, No. DC 64-28-K, which incorporated the faculty and staff provisions mandated by Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District, 419 F.2d 1211 (5 Cir. 1969). By joint answer, defendants denied the charges of racial discrimination, and asserted that the plaintiff was employed as a faculty member until the end of the school year 1976-77, that she was offered a contract for the ensuing year 1977-78, but that she voluntarily rejected the tendered reemployment and thereafter ceased to be in defendants' employ.

In her amended complaint, plaintiff stated her grievances at length in eight counts. Count I charged that plaintiff began her employment with the defendant board as a teacher-counselor in 1962, a year later she became a full-time guidance counselor at the all-black Higgins High School, and that she held this position until February 1970. At that time, pursuant to the court order mandating the merger of the formerly separate white and black junior-senior high schools, she was reassigned as a guidance counselor to Clarksdale High School, but demoted in the reassignment since she was given less job responsibility and assignments requiring a lesser degree of skill than she had previously exercised at the Higgins position and which her white counterpart, James Grimmett, continued to exercise as guidance counselor at Clarksdale High School.

Count II alleged that in 1974 Grimmett, white guidance counselor, was promoted to the assistant principalship of Clarksdale High School and the school board hired Robert Eavenson, also white, to fill his position, and that after Eavenson's employment, defendants continued the ongoing demotion of plaintiff because of race by assigning her subordinate jobs and inferior professional job responsibilities as compared to those held by Eavenson.

Count III charged that plaintiff was further demoted and discriminated against because of her race in the school year 1976-77 by being given a contract of employment conditioned upon availability of Title I funds, a provision which denied her substantial job security, and that she was required to perform duties as a Migrant Career Awareness counselor, a position involving less responsibility and less skill than the post which she had held at Clarksdale High School.

Count IV averred that during the next school year, 1977-78, she was further demoted and discriminated against on the basis of race by being offered a contract of employment conditioned upon availability of Title I funds and which would have required her to perform duties involving less responsibility and requiring less skill than her former position as guidance counselor at Clarksdale High School, and, accordingly, she rejected this contract.

Counts V and VI asserted that defendants maintained a policy and practice of offering white employees job assignments, promotions and positions paying additional money without making such offers to black employees, including the plaintiff, who requested such job promotions and positions, but was denied same because of her race.

Count VII charged that prior to her rejection of the 1977-78 employment contract which contained objectionable terms, defendants offered and she accepted another employment agreement not conditioned upon the availability of Title I federal funds, but that the defendants have failed and refused to honor that contract, as a consequence of which plaintiff suffered damages for salary loss of $13,083 for the 1977-78 school year.

Count VIII charged that as a result of defendants' racially discriminatory employment practices plaintiff has suffered and will continue to suffer damages resulting from her nervousness and mental anguish attendant upon her loss of professional status as a guidance counselor.

After extensive discovery, the parties appeared before a United States Magistrate for pretrial conference held March 16, 1979. However, a pretrial order containing lengthy statements of claims and defenses, together with certain factual stipulations, was not submitted to the court until July 19. Trial scheduling was delayed because of illness of counsel. On February 19, 1980, the court conducted a 4-day evidentiary hearing. Illness of counsel again delayed prompt submission of post-trial briefs, which the court has now considered and finds the case ripe for disposition. Incorporated herein are findings of fact and conclusions of law required by Rule 52(a), F.R. Civ.P.

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

Background.

On January 10, 1970, this court entered an order in the Clarksdale school desegregation case, Henry v. Clarksdale Municipal Separate School District, No. DC 64-28-K, mandating the establishment by February 1, 1970, of a single high school to be known as Clarksdale High School and housed in the Bobo and Dorr buildings previously occupied by the all-white Clarksdale Junior-Senior High School. The Clarksdale Junior High School was housed in the Higgins High School complex, formerly used as the all-black junior-senior high school. Singleton's standard provisions for employment of faculty and staff during the desegregation process were incorporated in the court's order.

Plaintiff, now 49 years old, holds a Bachelor's degree from Xavier University (1951), a Master's degree in guidance from Indiana University (1957), and an educational specialist degree in guidance and psychometry from Delta State University (1977). She is licensed as guidance counselor, classroom teacher and psychometrist.

Plaintiff was first employed by the defendant board as a teacher-counselor in 1962; a year later she became a full-time guidance counselor at the all-black Higgins High School and continued in that position until February 1970. Upon entry of the desegregation order, plaintiff was reassigned as a guidance counselor in Clarksdale High School. From February 1970 forward, plaintiff was continued as a guidance counselor at Clarksdale High School with James Grimmett, white, who had been employed as a guidance counselor in Clarksdale High School prior to the desegregation order. Plaintiff and Joseph Hardy, black, the former principal of Higgins High School who was reassigned as assistant principal of Clarksdale High School, had adjoining offices in the same suite in the Dorr Building together with Helen Green, a white secretary. James Grimmett had his office in the Bobo Building in a suite occupied also by Robert Ellard, then principal of Clarksdale High School, with a white secretary. The Dorr and Bobo buildings were located on the same campus and connected by a covered arcade or walkway. The records of black students were kept in the Dorr suite until Helen Green was transferred to the principal's office in the Bobo Building in 1972. Thereafter, all student records were kept in a vault located in the principal's office. Plaintiff had difficulty getting access to student records after this transfer.

Plaintiff continued to be employed as a high school guidance counselor for 12-month periods for the next four years. She received the same annual salary as Grimmett, who was also annually reemployed. In addition to regular salary, Grimmett, however, received certain compensation for coaching tennis and basketball. For the next ensuing two years, plaintiff was employed as occupational orientation teacher and counselor at Clarksdale High School for an 11-month period. She taught three periods of occupational orientation daily and served as counselor for two periods. During these years Eavenson, Grimmett's replacement as a counselor, was hired at a lesser salary than plaintiff received. However, Eavenson had no teaching duties and devoted his entire time to counseling.

For the school year 1976-77, plaintiff was employed as a career awareness counselor in the Migrant Program for 10 months at a greater salary than Eavenson received as a guidance counselor at Clarksdale High School. This employment transferred plaintiff out of Clarksdale High School to work as counselor with 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. In the spring of 1977 plaintiff was offered a contract of reemployment as career awareness counselor for 10 months for the school year 1977-78 which she refused to accept because the...