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Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Lesbian School Administrators by gomag.com April 28, 2008 |
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This week, a federal appeals court overturned a ruling by a lower court which had found in favor of two former school administrators, allegedly fired for being lesbians. The lower court also denied the $160,00 the school district was ordered to pay the two women who were dismissed from their posts in the Sheridan County School District. The 10th Circuit Court of Denver decided that the court that originally heard the case for the women, when their contracts were terminated in 2003, there were no specific protections for LGBT employees. As a result, the women were not entitled to be paid damages because of wrongful firing.
The two women, Kathleen Milligan-Hitt and Kathryn Roberts were allegedly fired in 2003 because someone reported seeing them holding hands in a store in Billings, Montana. That year, Milligan-Hitt was a Sheridan junior high school principal and Roberts was a Sheridan middle school principal. At the end of that year, the school district consolidated and the women as well as other administrators had to reapply for administrative positions. Milligan-Hitt was not rehired and Roberts was given a physical education position that she eventually left. The women said that they lost their job because of the hand-holding incident and claimed that Superintendent Craig Dougherty had scolded the women for holding hands in public, an incident they vehemently denied.
The jury had originally awarded $112,00 to Roberts and $48,000 to Milligan -Hitt. The women's attorney, Greg Hacker said that the appeals court ruling was, "unfortunate and unjust."
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