Lee’s Summit school district must pay $275,000 to settle race discrimination lawsuit
A Black woman has won a $275,000 settlement from the Lee’s Summit school district after she filed a lawsuit claiming she wasn’t hired because of her race.
In her 2019 suit, Danielle Nixon said she wasn’t chosen as the director of communications for the predominantly white suburban district because the former superintendent, who also is Black, had concerns about her race.
The job, which had been held for many years by a white woman, was filled in 2018 by Kelly Wachel, who is white. Wachel left the district the following year and is now chief marketing and communications officer for Kansas City Public Schools.
The suit said that then-Superintendent Dennis Carpenter told the district’s selection committee that he would “never hire an African American female for that key role.” Losing out on the position and later learning that her race was a factor worried Nixon, caused Nixon great stress and she “lost sleep over whether she could pursue her career,” the suit said.
First, Nixon filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Missouri Commission on Human Rights. Nine months later, she sued the district. She is now the head of communications for the Raytown school district.
The Lee’s Summit district declined to issue a statement on the settlement. “We don’t comment on litigation,” said Katy Bergen, the district’s current spokeswoman.
As part of the settlement, reached in November, “Nixon agrees never to seek employment with the district at any time in the future.” And it states that payment is “no admission of liability or wrongdoing” on the part of the district. Of the payment, $167,939 went to Nixon and $107,060 to the firm of her attorney, Williams Dirks Dameron.
Carpenter, the district’s first Black superintendent, resigned in July 2019 after clashing for several months with the then-all-white school board over diversity training. The board agreed to buy Carpenter out of his contract for $750,000. He is now president and CEO of Aspirational Insights Consulting, which focuses on equity.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
