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The campus of Sewickley Academy photographed on Friday, July 23, 2021.   (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
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Fired administrator sues Sewickley Academy on racial discrimination grounds

Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette

Fired administrator sues Sewickley Academy on racial discrimination grounds

The former head of admissions and financial aid at Sewickley Academy sued the school in federal court on Wednesday on racial discrimination grounds, saying he was fired last week in a purge of administrators and replaced by a white woman because of his race.

Douglas Leek, who is Black, and his lawyer, Sam Cordes, sued on counts of race discrimination and breach of contract.

The suit represents the latest fallout from the recent firings of five administrators and a teacher at the academy.

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The terminations came less than two months after a parents group sent a letter to the academy community criticizing what the parents considered political and ideological persuasion in the school’s curriculum after the replacement of the longtime head of the school.

The campus of Sewickley Academy photographed on Friday, July 23, 2021.
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The academy last week announced the departures of the director of diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice; heads of the senior school and the lower school; the director of teaching and learning; a fifth grade teacher; and Mr. Leek. 

Mr. Leek, LaVern Burton, the director of diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice, and Brandi Lawrence, the fifth grade teacher, are Black. 

Mr. Leek’s suit said the academy discharged him because of his race and said the move was part of a “pattern and practice of discrimination on the basis of race with the goal of restoring the school ‘to what it used to be.’” He said the move was made with “reckless indifference” to his right to make and enforce contracts irrespective of his race.

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The suit is asking for an order of reinstatement and for the school to compensate him for the “diminishment of the career advancement he would have obtained had it not been for Defendant’s illegal treatment.” He is also asking for an award of lost back and front pay and costs of litigation.

The complaint said that on June 1, a group of parents calling themselves the Sewickley “Parents’ Organization” wrote to the academy’s families and leaders and said that the school’s diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice initiatives program, adopted by the trustees in April, was “actually Critical Race Theory dressed in sheep’s clothing.”

The suit said the parents group admitted the program is not based on critical race theory, nor does it include any courses based on it, but said that the concept doesn’t have a narrow definition and is evolving.

The letter said the goals identified in the diversity program “were not consistent with a focus on academic excellence” and characterized the program as the product of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which it described as a political organization.

The campus of Sewickley Academy photographed on Friday, July 23, 2021.  A day after Sewickley Academy fired five administrators and a teacher, the interim head of school said the “decisions were made to ensure that we are meeting our standards of academic excellence.”
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The parents group also placed ads in local publications demanding the removal of activism in the classroom, the complaint said.

In response to the letter, the board of trustees contacted the parents group and asked what action the parents sought. The diversity program’s goals were then removed from the academy website, the complaint said.

On July 1, the trustees announced the departure of the head of school, Kolia O’Connor, describing the move as a “change in leadership ... in the best interest of the school.”

The board appointed Ashley Birtwell, a board member and a white woman, as interim head.

Shortly after she took over, she expressed to a parent her commitment to “restore the school to what it used to be,” according to the complaint.

Ms. Birtwell then circulated an email from that parent reiterating that commitment to the academy’s administrative team.

A week later, the school fired the five members of the team and the teacher.

The lawsuit said before Mr. Leek was fired, he had a discussion with Ms. Birtwell about the differences between the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and critical race theory. Mr. Leek knew critical race theory well because he had discussed it in his doctoral dissertation, and he assured Ms. Birtwell that the theory was not included in the school’s initiatives.

Still, Ms. Birtwell “inaccurately” viewed Mr. Leek as heavily associated with the critical race theory even though he never advocated for its introduction into the Sewickley Academy’s curriculum, the lawsuit said.

Sewickley Academy said the personnel moves were done in part to combat the enrollment struggles that the school had faced.

But in March, Mr. Leek was commended in a performance evaluation for accomplishing so much under the challenging circumstances of a pandemic and for demonstrating how much he added to the organization — not just in the work of admissions but also in the overall leadership of the school, the lawsuit said. 

In his first full year as director of admissions and financial aid, Mr. Leek had enrolled more students at the school than anyone during the past three years, according to the lawsuit. By contrast, the suit said, two of the previous admissions directors who did not enroll nearly as many new students were promoted.

The lawsuit said that when Mr. Leek pointed out those facts to Ms. Birtwell, she had no response. 

Sewickley Academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  

Torsten Ove: tove@post-gazette.com. Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com.

First Published: July 28, 2021, 6:12 p.m.

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