A former Gwinnett County principal, who is white, has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the school district, claiming administrators forced her to resign while giving an African-American assistant principal a written reprimand for their roles in the disciplinary action against an African-American student.
Lauri Burton, who was principal of Harris Elementary School in Duluth from January 2007 until November 2015, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
“She was mistreated while others were treated differently,” Ray S. Smith, Burton’s attorney, said in a telephone interview Friday.
School district spokeswoman Sloan Roach said Gwinnett officials had not seen the lawsuit, “but are very well aware of the facts leading up to Dr. Burton’s resignation from her position and will vigorously defend the school system against the claims that have been made.”
Burton said she and assistant principal Sheldon Jefferson last October removed a student in the school’s Emotional and Behavior Disorder classroom who was being disruptive. Burton and Jefferson told the student’s mother and other family members during a meeting two days later that the student repeatedly rolled a chair into a conference room wall, causing some damage.
Staffers told school district administrators they decided to create a hole in the wall, according to Burton’s complaint, in an apparent attempt to make the boy’s actions look worse. Burton said in her suit that the damage was done “without any prompting or direction” from her. Smith declined to discuss the incident.
Burton claimed Jefferson confessed to district administrators his role in damaging the wall. Burton said Gwinnett officials told her to resign or retire “or she would be terminated.” She resigned two days later.
“Despite these actions by Mr. Jefferson, Defendants did not terminate Mr. Jefferson or ask him to resign,” the complaint said.
Jefferson is still an assistant principal at the school.
Burton said an administrator told her race was a factor in Gwinnett’s thinking. They were worried about appearance of a white principal disciplining an African-American student, she said.
“[W]ith a white Principal issuing some directives, you know, to do this and framing this child, you know, you can see how that would come across,” Burton claimed Sid Camp, recently appointed as Gwinnett’s interim Human Resources director, told her.
Burton’s demands include compensatory and punitive damages, back pay and reimbursement for legal fees.
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