‘I was in the way.’ Coast superintendent, school board embroiled in discrimination lawsuit
A former assistant superintendent is suing Superintendent John Strycker and the Jackson County School District for gender and age discrimination and deprivation of due process.
Mary Tanner served as the assistant superintendent at East Central Attendance Center from 2014 until earlier this year. Her lawsuit, filed at the Jackson County Chancery Court in July but since moved to federal court, claims Strycker conducted an investigation into anonymous claims against her of misconduct, including misappropriation of funds, without ever giving her a chance to present a response.
After concluding his investigation, Strycker transferred Tanner to a central office position where her primary job responsibility was to oversee the district’s spending of $27.4 million in federal COVID-19 relief money.
Tanner is still reporting to the office, where she was initially tasked with overseeing the district’s guidance counseling program, personnel reporting, transportation and special education. Many of those responsibilities, including overseeing the COVID funds, have since been taken back from her, leaving her with little to do, she said in an interview with the Sun Herald.
Her salary was not cut with the transfer.
Tanner told the Sun Herald she believes Strycker removed her because he wanted an all-male leadership team. Her lawsuit notes that in 2020, Strycker removed Dr. Susan Benson as assistant superintendent for the St. Martin attendance center, replacing her with David Baggett, and transferring her to the central office.
“I was the last female standing, and he wanted a younger, fresher male,” said Tanner, who is 60 years old. “He had people he wanted as his three assistant superintendents, and I was in the way.”
Strycker declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.
Tanner is seeking unspecificed damages, attorney’s fees and an injunction returning her to her position as leader of East Central.
Attorneys for Strycker and the board have denied Tanner’s allegations. They have argued in legal filings that the lawsuit should be dismissed because there was nothing in Tanner’s contract stipulating she could not be transferred from East Central to the central office, and that Strycker is allowed to reassign employees at any time.
They also argue that Tanner has not shown evidence that she was discriminated against because of her age or gender.
The school board, Tanner’s lawsuit says, has enabled Strycker.
“The defendants have over the last two years allowed a hostile environment and discriminatory practices to occur in the Jackson County School District including age and gender discrimination,” the lawsuit says.
Board members Glenn Dickerson, who represents the East Central area, Amy Dobson and Keith Lee said they could not comment on litigation or personnel matters. Board Chairman Troy Frisbie also said he could not comment. Jory Howell declined to comment via text message.
Since starting her new position at the central office, Tanner said other employees were instructed not to help her as she navigated complicated federal programs with strict accounting requirements. She thinks Strycker’s goal was to pressure her to retire, but as a self-described “overachiever,” she worked long hours in her new position.
After 38 years working for the district, Tanner said the transfer has been painful and humiliating, and she has been unable to sleep or eat. She has lost 50 pounds since February.
“I love my school district, I love Jackson County,” she said. “I feel indebted (to) them. So for me to be in this situation crushes me.”
A sudden reassignment
In November 2020, Strycker reviewed Tanner’s performance and rated her “highly effective” in most areas.
He noted “a few instances in the past year where Mary seem (sic) to go in a direction not consistent with the entire county leadership,” but his overall conclusion was positive.
“Mary is a key component of our leadership team and has both the personal and professional qualities to do an outstanding job,” he wrote in her review, a copy of which was included as an exhibit in the lawsuit.
But less than three months later, Strycker was “hostile and angry” during a meeting where he told her he had met with unnamed East Central employees to hear complaints against her, including “misappropriation of funds, intimidation of employees, creating and perpetuating a hostile work environment, and misuse of authority for personal gain.”
Tanner says none of the allegations were true.
He also presented her with a hand-written list of accusations from an unnamed source. Without context, most items on the list are difficult to understand.
The bullet points under “Nepotism,” for example, include lines saying only “Tic Tock” and “Masks.” Under “Possible Fraud,” one line reads “100 pairs of socks.”
An anonymous, typed letter and bullet-point list described other issues:
“I said, ‘But there are no details here,’” Tanner said. “’Would you mind explaining?’ He said, ‘You think I have time for this?’”
Strycker then scheduled a meeting on March 4 to discuss the allegations in greater detail, telling her she could bring legal representation. But shortly before the meeting, Tanner’s lawsuit says, he canceled it and refused to reschedule.
‘It is time for a change’
Two months later, Tanner got a letter from Strycker, informing her that his “investigation has concluded.”
“I have determined that your leadership style is no longer a good match with ECAC and it is time for a change,” he wrote.
She was replaced by Dr. Todd Boucher, who is now serving as assistant superintendent for both Vancleave and East Central.
On May 26, Strycker agreed to meet with Tanner. When she arrived with her attorney, Chuck McRae, “he immediately went into a rage and ordered her attorney out,” according to the lawsuit.
In a June memorandum to the school board, Strycker explained how he had decided to remover Tanner from her position following an investigation conducted by Jackson-based attorney Jim Keith, an expert in school law issues and frequent speaker at the Mississippi School Board Association. The memorandum was also an exhibit in the lawsuit.
“There was a sense of urgency because I had officially been informed of teachers who had not signed their contracts yet and those who have left the district because of Mary’s leadership,” Strycker wrote.
Tanner’s lawsuit names Keith as a defendant. Keith has argued that he can’t be held personally liable for his legal work for Jackson County.
Legal fees piling up
By October, the district had paid the firm Adams and Reese, where Keith works, just under $87,000, and board attorney Jack Pickett about $42,000, for legal services in 2021, according to a Sun Herald analysis of the district’s claims dockets approved at each board meeting.
The total of about $129,000 does not include any compensation paid to the firm representing Strycker and the school board in Tanner’s lawsuit, Allen, Allen, Breeland & Allen, which is paid through the district’s insurance. For legal services in 2020, the district paid about $26,000 to Adams and Reese and $39,000 to Pickett.
At a board meeting in June, board member Dickerson questioned why the district’s spending on Keith’s firm, Adams and Reese, had been so high. The board had not held a vote on a contract with Keith, he pointed out, and already employs Pickett as its attorney.
Strycker said he needed to be able to get legal advice from an attorney specializing in education issues, in part to keep the district out of litigation.
“I’ve learned the hard way that if you don’t go to an attorney first, on the other end it’s more expensive,” he said.
In an interview with the Sun Herald in October, Strycker said he consulted Keith on special education issues and that any more specific information about Keith’s work is “confidential.”
He did not respond to a message asking how many hours Keith had billed for his investigation of Tanner.
At their October meeting, the board approved a contract with Adams and Reese. Keith charges the district $485 per hour.
Pickett charges $100 an hour, plus a monthly $500 retainer for his work at each board meeting.
A secretary’s resignation letter
Tanner’s lawsuit is not the only complaint against Strycker by a Jackson County school employee.
One of the exhibits filed by Tanner’s attorney is the June 2021 resignation letter of Strycker’s former executive assistant, Melissa Rayborn. In an emotional five-page letter to the school board, she explained why she was quitting just two months shy of becoming vested.
“My immediate departure is due to my fear of (Strycker), my treatment by him, my fear of being involved in every lawsuit that will be on the horizon because of what he says/does and I’m forced to hear,” she wrote.
Strycker declined to comment on Rayborn’s letter.
“That is also litigation,” he said, declining to specify which case involves the letter.
Rayborn also declined to comment on her letter.
It’s not clear what actions, if any, the board took after receiving it.
“I had some very serious concerns with what I read,” Dickerson said. “I can tell you that I provided my concerns to our board attorney.”
Other board members declined to comment on Rayborn’s letter.
Rayborn described a work environment in which Strycker talked loudly about personnel issues, cursed frequently, and encouraged “the tearing down of employees.”
On one occasion, she said, he warned colleagues in a meeting that they might be getting media inquiries about a verbal confrontation he’d recently had in a Waffle House. Rayborn said he replayed the encounter and said he cursed at the man and called him a vulgar term for women.
Rayborn wrote that Strycker told his support staff they were like a “work spouse” and they had “to endure his natural self.”
Rayborn’s letter said she rarely used vacation days, even when her daughter was battling a medical issue and her mother was dying in the hospital. During a performance evaluation, she wrote that Strycker told her she would get better marks if she “put the district before my family at all times.”
Rayborn’s letter also corroborated aspects of Tanner’s lawsuit, which was filed about three weeks later. She wrote that Strycker had encouraged colleagues not to help Tanner as she tried to get a handle on the federal COVID money she’d been assigned to oversee.
“You realize we have 3 years, just 3 years to use the funds yet they won’t help Mrs. Tanner get started on one thing,” she wrote. “Why, because he hopes she’ll quit instead.”
‘We back the superintendent’
In 2019, Strycker became the first Jackson County superintendent appointed by the board instead of elected by voters, replacing Dr. Barry Amacker, who had served in the position for 12 years.
Board member Lee said the board had supported Strycker in his decision to transfer Tanner, which did not require a vote.
“Because we back the superintendent,” he said. “Typically, you want to have a good relationship between the board and the superintendent.”
Strycker’s wife, Debra, filed for divorce in January. After that, Strycker began staying in a house owned by board chairman Frisbie.
Frisbie said Strycker “is currently renting” and he doesn’t see that as a conflict of interest because there are five board members. Frisbie said the amount of rent Strycker pays is “confidential.”
“If it was just one-on-one and there would be a situation, say, that would come up, then you could say, well you have an argument with that,” Frisbie said. “But since there’s five people on the board, so it’s not just one person that he’s interacting with or working with, it’s five, so that’s why I don’t see there’s a conflict there.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 8:30 AM.
