A former athletic director at the Jersey Shore (Pa.) Area School District has filed a federal lawsuit saying she experienced a hostile work environment and was let go because she is a woman.
As reported by the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Serena Pfaff-Henry is seeking a jury trial in U.S. Middle District Court after she received notices of dismissal for her two cases from the Employment Opportunity Commission and Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.
Hired in April 2019, Pfaff-Henry was dismissed from her job as athletic director by the district administration in a vote by the school board following a public hearing.
Pfaff-Henry alleges disparate treatment for sex/gender in violation of her federal civil rights and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act; retaliation in violation of federal and state acts and a hostile work environment and harassment, the Sun-Gazette reported. Superintendent Dr. Brian Ulmer “fostered a discriminatory and demeaning work environment for her and women working in the district,” according to the suit. She asserted that Ulmer, who arrived a year after Pfaff-Henry, worked to “undermine her position and replace her with a male and has given her lower pay increases than similar male employees.”
According to the school district, her dismissal from the athletic director job stemmed from four incidents which the district said highlighted her “incompetence” based on school code. As reported by the Sun-Gazette, the school district has asserted that it had the “right to remove any of its officers, employees or appointees for incompetency, intemperance, neglect of duty, violation of any of the school laws of this Commonwealth or other improper conduct."
In her suit, Pfaff-Henry is seeking damages due to lost wages and benefits and pain and suffering.
