Lorain City Schools sued by former employee

The Lorain City School District is being sued by an employee for claims of racial discrimination and retaliation, according to a federal complaint.

The complaint, filed May 15 on behalf of William “Billy” Kopp, names the Lorain City Board of Education, Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Graham, Human Resources Director Carol Gotschling, Associate Operations Director Kevin Haupt, Director of Operations Jeff Hawks, Board President Timothy Williams, Board Vice-President Tony Dimmacchia, Board Member Mark Ballard and Board Member Bill Sturgill as defendants.

According to the complaint, Kopp, a white man who has worked as a janitor in the district for 20 years, was fired shortly after reporting racially motivated incidents involving a subordinate janitor in 2014.

The filing claims the posting of a “No Billy Kopp” sign at the school Kopp worked at and the sending of a plastic gorilla through the interoffice courier were motivated by his marriage to a black woman, and he reported the incidents to defendant Haupt.

Three months after complaining to superiors in the district, the filing claims Kopp was told administrators were unable to find any wrongdoing and were closing the investigation, according to the complaint.

The filing claims this shows the “conduct of all the defendants were intentional, malicious and in wanton and reckless disregard of the rights and feelings” of Kopp.

The complaint goes on to claim the district proceeded to hire individuals to follow and videotape Kopp in an effort to find alleged violations by Kopp. He was fired in April 2015 for “stealing” overtime.

According to the filing, the claims were unsubstantiated and several employees who had allegedly committed similar offenses had not been fired.

Kopp pursued a racial discrimination challenge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but a lawyer for Lorain City Schools denied his right to do so as a white man, the complaint said.

In June of 2015 Kopp was offered the chance to return to work if he withdrew the challenge, which he refused to do, the complaint said.

According to the filing, Kopp appeared with counsel at a June 2015 school board meeting, but it was canceled before he was able to plead his case.

Kopp later approached a reporter from a local newspaper and shared his side of the story. The lawsuit claims this story spurred the defendants to rescind the stipulation that Kopp drop his complaint, and “forced” Kopp to sign an agreement re-hiring him on a probationary status and “suffer a loss in position and income.”

The complaint claims the story forced administrators to conduct a “secret governmental re-investigation” of the incidents, and later confirmed they occurred and were the actions of a subordinate employee. They did not, however, affirm the incidents were of a racial nature.

The lawsuit asks the judge to declare the defendants violated Kopp’s fourth and fourteenth amendment rights, grant an injunction from participating in such practices again, order them not to retaliate against Kopp by depriving him of employment opportunities or benefits, the establishment of a policy to protect workers employed by the defendants from racial intimidation, remove any unconstitutional or unlawful information from Kopp’s file and pay Kopp unspecified damages, compensation and relief.

Lorain City Schools officials were not available to comment on the suit and no replies were filed in by press time.