DroP freeze heading toward full council vote

An ordinance that would allow Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings — as well as other city employees — to freeze their scheduled retirements is headed toward a final vote Oct. 18.

The ordinance, which was requested by Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration, would allow 199 employees currently in the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) to delay their retirements up to three years. The administration estimates the city would save up to $8 million if all eligible employees freeze their DROP participation.

The proposal would allow Rallings to continue in his current role past his scheduled DROP date of April 2018. Rallings has committed to serving through Strickland’s first term, which ends at the end of 2019. Sanderson was the center of a dispute when he asked to bring a male student from another school as his date to the CBHS Homecoming Dance. The lawsuit states Sanderson previously acknowledged to school officials that he is gay.

Sanderson’s parents, Michael Sanderson and Stephanie Winkler, said they signed a contract in February 2015 for their son to attend CBHS as a senior in the 2015-16 school year and made all payments for him to attend. They contend the school “failed to comply with the terms of the agreement by failing to provide Lance with an education during his senior year and failed to allow him to attend school during the majority of his senior year.”

According to the lawsuit, Sanderson told Chris Fay, the school’s principal, during the 2012-13 school year that he is gay. The complaint states that — at that time — Fay advised Sanderson not to share his sexual orientation with anyone else, adding the principal “acted as if he were ashamed, embarrassed and disapproving of Lance’s sexual orientation ...”

Later, according to Sanderson’s complaint, Fay made “a number of inappropriate, false and derogatory statements to Lance about gay people.”

After the school refused to allow Sanderson to bring a male date to the dance, Sanderson posted the decision on social media. As part of the school’s reaction to the controversy surrounding the student and his posting of the school’s decision regarding him bringing a male date, Sanderson was sent home the following week.

According to the lawsuit, filed by Howard Manis, the parents later met with the school’s counsel and were told Sanderson had two options — either be homeschooled or attend another school.

“There was no discussion nor option for Lance to return to CBHS,” the lawsuit states. “It was made clear to the (parents) that Lance was not allowed to return to CBHS.”

However, during fall break the parents were led to believe Sanderson was not expelled or suspended from school and could return.

The student returned on Oct. 8, 2015, but contends he was met with derogatory comments from other students and others and “made to feel unwelcome.”

He eventually completed his remaining course work online away from campus and received his diploma from CBHS earlier this year.

Efforts to reach Fay, the school’s principal, by email and telephone, were unsuccessful Tuesday evening.