On August 23, 2002, the United States filed a lawsuit under Title VII against Zuni Public School District in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico alleging that a female employee was discriminated against on the basis of her sex. Specifically, the United States contended that the female employee was subject to sexual harassment. The United States sought injunctive and monetary relief.

The EEOC investigated the charge, found reasonable cause to believe that the allegations of discrimination were true, attempted unsuccessfully to achieve through conciliation a voluntary resolution of the charge and subsequently referred the matter to the Department of Justice.

On September 11, 2002, the United States and the School District entered into a consent decree. The Decree provides that the School District shall not discriminate on the basis of an employee's sex, shall revise its sexual harassment policy to provide that employees may submit complaints of sexual harassment of any kind to an administrator or supervisor or directly to the superintendent of schools, and that if an administrator or supervisor receives a complaint of sexual harassment, (s)he will promptly refer that complaint to the superintendent of schools for investigation. The Decree further requires the defendant to provide training to all of its employees regarding Title VII's prohibition against sexual harassment, and gave the United States shall right to monitor the School District's compliance. Finally, the defendant agreed to pay the individual plaintiff $75,000 as compensatory damages.

We have no further information on this case.

Dana Schwarz - 10/17/2007


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