Block, Upload, Automoderated users, edit, move, protect, rollback
57,799
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 45:
Line 45: + + Line 50:
Line 52: + + + + + + + + + +
→Legal issues
==Legal issues==
==Legal issues==
===Aguillard suits===
In September 2016, former LC President Aguillard alleged in a suit in state district court that he is fighting a "civil conspiracy" by Louisiana College to commit assault and battery, to inflict emotional distress, and breach of contract. On October 6, 2017, he not only lost his suit in state court but was ordered by Judge Monique Rauls to pay nearly $18,000 in arbitration fees to LC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/local/education/2017/10/19/judge-dismisses-former-presidents-claims-against-louisiana-college/780332001/|title=Judge dismisses former president's claims against Louisiana College|author=Leigh Guidry|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|date=October 19, 2017|accessdate=February 16, 2018}}</ref>
In September 2016, former LC President Aguillard alleged in a suit in state district court that he is fighting a "civil conspiracy" by Louisiana College to commit assault and battery, to inflict emotional distress, and breach of contract. On October 6, 2017, he not only lost his suit in state court but was ordered by Judge Monique Rauls to pay nearly $18,000 in arbitration fees to LC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/local/education/2017/10/19/judge-dismisses-former-presidents-claims-against-louisiana-college/780332001/|title=Judge dismisses former president's claims against Louisiana College|author=Leigh Guidry|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|date=October 19, 2017|accessdate=February 16, 2018}}</ref>
Then on December 27, 2017, former Aguillard again filed suit against LC, this time in the Alexandria-based United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. He contends that LC discriminated against him for "disability" since his heart attack and quadruple by-pass surgery in 2011. When Aguillard left the college presidency in 2014, he cited health issues as a factor. After a year as president emeritus, he became a tenured faculty member in the LC graduate teacher education program. Aguillard also claims religious discrimination because he contends that his permanent successor, Rick Brewer, is a Calvinist, a claim which Brewer repudiates. Aguillard is seeking a jury trial and "all of the relief" to which he claims he is owed, including back-pay and front-pay. James T. Trimble, the presiding judge in the suit, was assigned after Dee Drell recused himself.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/local/education/2018/01/04/former-lc-president-suing-college-again/1001003001/|title=Former LC president suing college again|author=Leigh Guidry|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|date=January 4, 2018|accessdate=February 5, 2018}}</ref>
Then on December 27, 2017, former Aguillard again filed suit against LC, this time in the Alexandria-based United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. He contends that LC discriminated against him for "disability" since his heart attack and quadruple by-pass surgery in 2011. When Aguillard left the college presidency in 2014, he cited health issues as a factor. After a year as president emeritus, he became a tenured faculty member in the LC graduate teacher education program. Aguillard also claims religious discrimination because he contends that his permanent successor, Rick Brewer, is a Calvinist, a claim which Brewer repudiates. Aguillard is seeking a jury trial and "all of the relief" to which he claims he is owed, including back-pay and front-pay. James T. Trimble, the presiding judge in the suit, was assigned after Dee Drell recused himself.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/local/education/2018/01/04/former-lc-president-suing-college-again/1001003001/|title=Former LC president suing college again|author=Leigh Guidry|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|date=January 4, 2018|accessdate=February 5, 2018}}</ref>
===Jewish heritage suit===
On a separate matter, Brewer on February 21, 2018, was sued in the United States District Court by a former LC graduate, Joshua Bonadona (born October 20. 1989), who was an unsuccessful applicant for a position at LC as assistant [[football]] coach. Bonadona converted from [[Judaism]] to Christianity while he was an LC student. He contends that Brewer discriminated against him in the coach selection process because of Bonadona's Jewish heritage. Bonadona's lawyer said the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] offers legal protection at private colleges to Jews facing discrimination. Formerly of [[Baton Rouge]], Bonadona instead took a lower-paying position as assistant coach at Hendrix College in Conway in Faulkner County, [[Arkansas]]. Bonadona said that he was told by head football coach Justin Charles (born July 21, 1982) that Brewer had rejected Bonadona's application because of Bonadona's Jewish background. Brewer himself denies any anti-Semitism. The suit, he said, had led to his having been unfairly "vilified and determined guilty by certain persons from across the nation."<ref name=bonadonasuit>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/local/2018/02/24/lc-president-denies-not-hiring-man-over-jewish-heritage/369889002/|title=LC president denies not man over Jewish heritage|date=February 28, 2018|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|accessdate=March 3, 2018}}</ref>
On a separate matter, Brewer on February 21, 2018, was sued in the United States District Court by a former LC graduate, Joshua Bonadona (born October 20. 1989), who was an unsuccessful applicant for a position at LC as assistant [[football]] coach. Bonadona converted from [[Judaism]] to Christianity while he was an LC student. He contends that Brewer discriminated against him in the coach selection process because of Bonadona's Jewish heritage. Bonadona's lawyer said the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] offers legal protection at private colleges to Jews facing discrimination. Formerly of [[Baton Rouge]], Bonadona instead took a lower-paying position as assistant coach at Hendrix College in Conway in Faulkner County, [[Arkansas]]. Bonadona said that he was told by head football coach Justin Charles (born July 21, 1982) that Brewer had rejected Bonadona's application because of Bonadona's Jewish background. Brewer himself denies any anti-Semitism. The suit, he said, had led to his having been unfairly "vilified and determined guilty by certain persons from across the nation."<ref name=bonadonasuit>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/local/2018/02/24/lc-president-denies-not-hiring-man-over-jewish-heritage/369889002/|title=LC president denies not man over Jewish heritage|date=February 28, 2018|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|accessdate=March 3, 2018}}</ref>
===Dr. Carolyn Spears suit===
In March 2018, Carolyn Spears (born c. 1941), a faculty member and administrator in physical education and teacher education at LC since 1977, who was tenured in 1984, filed suit in the United States District Court in Alexandria regarding her dismissal on grounds alleged age, gender, disability, and non-Calvinist religious beliefs. She claims retaliation while she underwent apparently successful [[cancer]] treatment in 2016 in [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], [[Texas]]. She claims that the college rejected her request for medical accommodation and cut her pay by $500 per month. The suit maintains that Brewer and Cheryl Clark, the vice president of academic affairs, conspired to "embarrass and humiliate" Spears into resigning from the faculty and alleges further that Clark "openly attacked" Spears and called the courses she taught a "joke" during a faculty meeting in April 2015 shortly after Brewer became the president.<ref name=spearscase>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetowntalk.com/story/news/education/2018/03/21/another-federal-lawsuit-against-lc-alleges-discrimination/443511002/|title=Another federal lawsuit against Louisiana College alleges discrimination|publisher=''The Alexandria Town Talk''|date=March 21, 2018|author=Miranda Klein|accessdate=March 23, 2018}}</ref>
In a letter, Brewer claimed the college paid Spears a full salary for two years "without her ever teaching a single student, although the college was not obligated to do so. LC cannot sustain such a practice, which has never been afforded any other faculty member." Spears denies that she was paid without teaching duties and instructed four hundred students while undergoing cancer treatments.<ref name=spearscase/>
Like former President Aguillard in his pending suit, Spears alleges in her lawsuit that Brewer is a "Calvinist." Aguillard had called Calvinism beyond the faith statement adopted by the Southern and Louisiana Baptist conventions. Brewer, however, again declared himself "neither a Calvinist or an Arminian, but a Baptist."<ref name=spearscase/>
==References==
==References==