Woman Who Claimed She Was Denied AD Job Because Husband is Black Receives $50K Settlement

Paul Steinbach Headshot
Gateway

The Gateway School Board in Monroeville, Pa., has approved a $50,000 settlement of a years-long racial discrimination lawsuit.

As reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, school directors during their board meeting Monday approved the settlement of the January 2021 lawsuit by Korie Morton-Rozier. In the suit, filed in federal court against the district and former school director Paul Caliari, Morton-Rozier said she was rejected for the athletic director position because she is married to a Black man.

No discussion took place Monday regarding the settlement, according to Post-Gazette reporter Megan Tomasic.

According to the lawsuit, Morton-Rozier, the athletic director at Penn State Greater Allegheny, applied for the same position at Gateway in December 2019 and was named a finalist for the job.

On Feb. 11, 2020, former school director Richard McIntyre asked Caliari for his vote. In a group text among board members, Caliari, who is white, responded ā€œdidnā€™t she start dating the darkiesā€ in reference to Morton-Rozier, the complaint reads.

A short time later, per Tomasic's reporting, Caliari sent another text saying, ā€œMisfire. Nobody on this text chain married into the Darki family.ā€

School director Susan Delaney, who is Black, then asked, ā€œPaul, please explain your text, so I donā€™t misunderstand you.ā€

Caliari said he had gone to college with two brothers named Brian and Pete Darki and that a friend had dated the wife of one brother. ā€œHe asked me whatever happened to her and I told him she started dating one of the darkies,ā€ the text thread read, as reported by Tomasic.

The next day ā€” Feb. 12, 2020 ā€” the district named Don Holl as athletic director in a 7-1 vote. Delaney voted for Morton-Rozier.

Shortly after Morton-Rozier filed her suit, the Pennsylvania and Allegheny East branches of the NAACP announced their full support.

As reported by Tomasic, a change.org petition was created calling on Caliari to resign, which he did on Jan. 7, 2021, following the ā€œrecently published text message that he erroneously sent to the Gateway school board.ā€ That same month the school board approved a proposal recommending anti-discrimination training sessions endorsed by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association for teachers and board members.

Morton-Rozier is currently the athletic director at Oakland Catholic High School.

The $50,000 settlement will be covered by the Gateway School District's insurance.

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