MS Coast school supervisor used racist language and harassed workers, lawsuit says
A custodial supervisor in the Bay-Waveland School District called them racist names and sexually harassed females in the school-district community, but two custodians claim in a racial discrimination lawsuit that they were the ones who lost their jobs because they complained.
Lilia Flores-Martinez, a U.S. citizen of Hispanic descent who lives in Ocean Springs, and Quantrome Ray, an African American from Pascagoula, have filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Gulfport under federal laws that protect employees from discrimination based on their race or sex. They also claim that they were retaliated against for complaining in violation of those laws.
They are suing their former supervisor, Charles Schwartz, district maintenance supervisor Dino Tenorio and the Bay-Waveland School District.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages to compensate Flores-Martinez and Ray for their job loss, punitive damages, back pay and reinstatement.
Board attorney Ronnie Artiques said the district investigated the claims when complaints were originally field with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and found no evidence of wrongdoing. The EEOC determined Flores-Martinez and Ray had a right to sue but did not draw any conclusions from its investigation.
Suit details racial discrimination, sexual harassment
Flores-Martinez and Ray laid out their claims in the lawsuits, both saying they were fired April 23, 2019, after taking their complaints to the principal at Bay-Waveland Middle School, where they worked and Tenorio.
Schwartz, a white male, started harassing Ray shortly after he went to work in January 2019 through staffing company Kelly Services, Ray said. He said that Schwartz repeatedly referred to him as “colored” and “boy” rather than using his name as Ray had requested.
Schwartz also asked Ray if he wanted to hear a “black joke,” Ray said. When Ray said no, Schwartz told the joke anyway, the lawsuit says.
The punch line, the lawsuit says, was “N-----, n-----, n-----.”
‘Go back to Mexico,’ worker says she was told
Flores-Martinez, who says she went to work at the school in January 2018, said in the lawsuit that Schwartz made racially and sexually offensive comments to her. He talked badly about Hispanic-Americans and African-Americans, she said.
He repeatedly told her that “she should go back to Mexico,” the lawsuit says, made comments about her being deported and remarked “about the wall being built across the U.S.-Mexico border, and asked her how she would get back over the border.”
At one point, Flores-Martinez said, Schwartz told her that someone of Indian descent, “looked more like a wet---k” than she did.
Her lawsuit says, “Schwartz also repeatedly made sexually inappropriate and offensive remarks to and about (Flores-Martinez), other employees, teachers, and students.”
Flores-Martinez and Ray said they reported Schwartz’s behavior in April 2019 to the principal, who no longer works at the school, and filled out written complaints. They said Tenorio met with all the custodial employees and discussed the complaints.
“Tenorio said that Schwartz was ‘not a bad guy,’ and that he ‘was only joking,’ “Ray’s lawsuit say.
“Tenorio also made a reference that (Ray) and his co-workers ‘did not know how to take a joke.’ “
Both said they were fired on April 23, 2019, for each missing a day of work even though the time off had been pre-approved.
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 5:50 AM.
