Former Hickman Mills superintendent sues over abrupt firing, discrimination claims
The former superintendent of the Hickman Mills School District was fired abruptly last July as the district faced state-level allegations of financial mismanagement and improper activity.
Now, he’s filed an employment discrimination lawsuit against the district, alleging that school board members made racially charged statements to him and excluded him from decisionmaking on the basis of ethnic identity.
Yaw Obeng filed the 46-page lawsuit Monday in Jackson County Court. The suit focuses largely on Obeng’s relationship with the Hickman Mills School Board President Bonnaye Mims, who was re-elected to a three-year term in 2024.
The lawsuit alleges that Mims refused to speak directly to Obeng once her term began, and that she told him in early 2025 -- in front of other board members — that she had been declining to speak to him on the basis of his Ghanaian ancestry and Canadian nationality.
The lawsuit further alleges that Mims said Obeng’s ethnic and national identity prevented him from understanding “how we do things,” and alleges that board member Byron Townsend voiced his agreement at the time. The lawsuit alleges that these statements were repeated and escalated over time by multiple board members, with some allegedly telling Obeng to “go back to Africa.”
Following Mims’ comments, “Plaintiff’s Canadian nationality and near African/Ghanaian ancestry were repeatedly invoked by Board members to justify adverse positions to Plaintiff in both private and public meetings,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit also alleges that starting in 2024, Mims would regularly make requests for information under Missouri’s public records law rather than asking Obeng direct questions.
Obeng complained to the board, which recommended mediation, according to the lawsuit. However, the lawsuit alleges that Mims refused to participate in mediation. Instead, the lawsuit alleges that her “hostile conduct persisted and escalated,” leading Obeng to file a second complaint, then a third formal complaint in 2025.
Also in 2025, Obeng’s contract was extended until 2028 with a “cost-of-living adjustment,” and Mims was again elected board president. Mims was previously on the board from 2003 to 2016, serving as president for four years. She was also a Missouri State Representative from 2013 to 2016, and has been a Raytown alderwoman since 2017.
The lawsuit also references several actions taken by board members that Obeng characterized as circumventing his authority. These included a series of visits to teachers conducted by board member Clifford Ragan III, a board proposal to purchase an old administrative building without consulting Obeng first and the promotion of one of “[Obeng’s] subordinates” who “shared a similar cultural and ancestral background with the majority of the board.”
Obeng was fired from his position as superintendent on July 8, 2025, after a closed session meeting. At the time, Hickman Mills School District declined to speak publicly on why Obeng was dismissed, describing the dismissal as a private personnel matter.
The lawsuit alleges that Obeng was terminated without cause, and notes that his replacement, Interim Superintendent Dr. Dennis Carpenter, also “shared a similar cultural and ancestral background with the majority of the Board.”
However, in August 2025, the Missouri state auditor’s office announced the results of an investigation into the district, stemming from a whistleblower complaint into the use of district credit cards. The investigation also looked at the cancellation of a technology contract that cost the district $1.4 million in termination fees, and at school-funded trips to Ghana and China.
The district underwent a formal audit and an internal forensic review following the state investigation.
In the year following Obeng’s dismissal, the district faced a $14 million budget shortfall and the threat of closure within two years. Under Carpenter, the board voted for a series of sweeping cuts to stabilize the budget, eliminating upwards of 70 positions and dozens of contracts and closing a historic elementary school.
Carpenter was previously superintendent of the Hickman Mills School District from 2013-2017, then led the Lee’s Summit School District from 2017-2019 and briefly lived in Georgia before returning to the South Kansas City district. Both Carpenter and Obeng are Black, but as the lawsuit reads, Carpenter is not of either Canadian nationality or Ghanaian descent.
Obeng became Hickman Mills’ superintendent in July 2020 after working as a superintendent in Toronto and Burlington, Vermont. He was granted several raises and contract extensions over the years since, most recently a 2025 update that would have kept him at the helm of the district through 2028 had he not been fired.
Obeng would have received a $30,000 bonus at the end of the 2025-2026 school year – the year after his dismissal – per his initial contract with the district, according to the lawsuit.
Obeng filed a complaint with the Missouri Human Rights Commission in December 2025. The organization responded in June 2026, issuing Notice of Right to Sue. A case management conference has been scheduled for November 4.
Carpenter and the Hickman Mills school board, including Mims, declined to comment on pending legislation. Attorneys for Obeng were unavailable for comment prior to publication.
