Ex-janitor sues Beaver Area School District

Lawsuit alleges boss sexually harassed her

A former janitor has sued the Beaver Area School District, saying her boss sexually harassed her and that she lost work hours after she complained about him.

Tammy Wakefield filed the complaint Thursday in federal court on counts of sexual harassment and retaliation.

Ms. Wakefield, who lives in Beaver, began working for the district as summer help in June 2018 and became a full-time janitor in September 2018, working at the district’s Dutch Ridge and College Square elementary schools and at the high school.

She said her supervisor at Dutch Ridge, Charles Dean, began harassing her by soliciting sex acts shortly after she started work there, asking if she wanted to make an “extra 50 bucks.”

She said she objected and walked away but said Mr. Dean kept harassing her, saying he would pay her and “nobody has to know.”

Ms. Wakefield said the harassment continued every day through the summer. She tried to deal with it on her own, she said, but Mr. Dean then approached her husband, also a janitor, and made the same solicitation to him about his wife.

Ms. Wakefield’s husband told Mr. Dean to stop harassing her, according to the suit.

Mr. Dean didn’t stop and continued making sexual solicitations at least twice a week at Dutch Ridge, the suit said.

In December 2018, Ms. Wakefield said, she reported the harassment to Dino Almonte, the facilities manager, and John Hynes, the director of business services, and later gave a statement to Mr. Almonte.

According to the suit, Mr. Almonte responded with a letter in February 2019 indicating that he took some disciplinary action against Mr. Dean that is

unspecified in the suit but also removed Ms. Wakefield from work at Dutch Ridge.

Instead of working her usual 20 to 30 hours a week, she said she ended up working less than 10 hours a week at the other schools. In April, she said, the district stopped offering her any work and fired her husband.

No reason was given for either action, the suit said, and Ms. Wakefield said she believes Mr. Dean was not disciplined because he kept attending custodian manager meetings.

She said she contacted the district for work in June but was told positions had been filled without her being called.

In August 2019, she said, one of the other custodial managers asked if she would work a day at the high school but she declined because she said she would have to work with Mr. Dean.

“As a result of retaliation and uncorrected sexual harassment,” her suit says, “Wakefield was terminated and has lost a valuable position and income.”

No one was immediately available for comment at the district offices Thursday.