Antelope Valley College settles racial discrimination suit
Black professors awarded undisclosed amount
Antelope Valley College trustees agreed to pay two Black professors—from district funds—to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit filed almost seven years ago. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
College board members recently voted 4-0 for the settlement agreement with former AVC employees Sylvia Brown and John McDonald, who sued the college in December 2003 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“This case went all the way to the California Supreme Court,” said lawyer Bradley Gage, who represented the plaintiffs. “I am gratified that this settlement will help to prevent discrimination, harassment, or retaliation from occurring in our public institutions in the future.
“We feel that we have performed an important public service with the settlement that we obtained for John McDonald and Sylvia Brown,” Gage added. “They are pioneers who will help future generations of African Americans in the college (teaching) system.”
The attorney and his clients settled the case for a confidential amount. “I am not allowed to say what the amount is, because we agreed to keep the amount of settlement confidential from our side,” the lawyer said. “That was part of the terms of resolving our case.”
Although the plaintiffs took their case to court in December 2003, their grievances first arose in the late 1990s, when Brown, McDonald and sociology teacher Sallie Stryker each alleged that the college had a history of racial discrimination in hiring and promoting African Americans.
Stryker was not included in the approved settlement. She filed a writ of mandate in June 2000 in an effort to compel the college district to reclassify her position as a regular employee, rather than keeping her on a temporary contract.
Stryker filed papers in July 2002 in the California Court of Appeals, after a lower court denied her request. She joined the lawsuit with Brown and McDonald, but dropped out after a court ruling that she did not file her claims in a timely manner. “She blew the deadlines,” Gage said.
The plaintiffs, who declined to be interviewed for this story, stated in the lawsuit that they were denied various promotions, because of their race, despite being qualified for the positions. Brown, a library technician’s assistant, was hired by the college district in 1998. A position for a database administrator opened in 1999. She applied but was not invited to an interview. Then, in June 2000, that position opened again and she reapplied only to be passed over again, a document from the California Supreme Court indicated.
McDonald, a counselor in AVC’s Extended Opportunity Program and Services, began his employment with the college in May 1978. He alleged that AVC violated past practices by not appointing him to an acting or interim dean of counseling position for the program, when a vacancy occurred.
The employees’ allegations were ruled unfounded in mid-2003 by an independent law firm hired by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. However, retired United States Congressman Mervyn Dymally, a former California lieutenant governor, criticized AVC’s hiring practices in a June 2002 report to the speaker of the California Assembly and the chairman of the legislature’s Committee on Community Colleges.
In his letter, Dymally stated that he met with some faculty and staff from the college and listened to their complaints. He advised them to consult with the Chancellor’s Office and file a complaint with the vice president for Human Resources.
“Such a complaint was filed and the matter was referred back to the administration of AVC for review. The college then hired a firm, without any competitive selection, to investigate the complaint, with anticipated results,” Dymally stated.
“The firm, after some inexplicable procedures, began to look at the sole issue of discrimination from the interviewing committee. The response was obvious. The investigators concluded the selection of the new faculty member was made on the basis of ‘qualifications.’”
Dymally said the investigators did not consider policy, the history of institutional racism at the college, or other practices and procedures. “In other words, the investigators’ report was both flawed and superficial,” Dymally said in his 2002 report.
AVC Trustee Betty Wienke expressed satisfaction with the ultimate outcome. “We’re pleased to put an end to it,” Wienke said of the board’s agreement to settle. “(This case has) been going on for many years. It’s good to have it behind us.”
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