CPS principal sues district over claimed racial, sex discrimination

A middle school principal at Columbia Public Schools claims she was passed over for a high school job because of her gender and race.

Dr. Melita Walker, an African-American, filed the employment discrimination lawsuit on Thursday against the district. Walker’s lawsuit said an all-white interview panel rejected her for the principal job at Hickman High School in the spring of 2017. Walker is now the principal of West Middle School.

Walker’s lawsuit is the third of its kind related to CPS’ search for a principal at Hickman High School. Two administrators, Andrew McCarthy and Rachel Henderson, each sued the district and Dr. Kevin Brown, the head of secondary education, in 2017 for not allowing one of them to interview for the job due to complaints filed against Brown. Tony Gragnani, an assistant principal at Hickman High School, got the job.

Walker, who was an assistant principal at Battle High School at the time, applied for the Hickman job in the spring of 2017. Her lawsuit, filed by attorney Lynne Bratcher, said the six-person hiring panel included three Hickman faculty members and one parent of a Hickman student. All six members of the panel were white females, Bratcher wrote, and some of them were on a committee with Gragnani.

“There was a lack of objectivity in the hiring process, and also a failure on the school’s part to include people of diversity in that process,” Bratcher said.

Walker was the only candidate for the Hickman principal position that had a doctorate in education, according to both Walker’s and McCarthy’s lawsuits.

Bratcher declined to comment on the lawsuit. Andy Hirth and Julianne Germinder, attorneys representing McCarthy and Henderson respectively, also declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for CPS did not return a message seeking comment on Monday afternoon. The district previously argued that their actions in the Henderson and McCarthy cases were lawful.

McCarty’s lawsuit said Brown favored Walker for the principal job, but Hickman faculty were “roundly opposed” to her hiring.

CPS announced Walker’s selection as West Middle School principal on April 25, 2017. She earned a doctoral degree in educational leadership, according to a news release, and worked as a teacher, reading specialist and reading coach.

It was not the first time Walker was passed for a promotion in her time at CPS, according to the lawsuit. The petition does not specify how many other jobs Walker applied for within CPS, but claims she was “highly qualified” for them and was denied “even the opportunity to interview.”

Separate judges denied CPS’ attempt to dismiss the McCarthy and Henderson lawsuits. Henderson’s case is scheduled for a five-day jury trial in Sept. 2019.