The Ohio Civil Rights Commission has ruled against Toledo School for the Arts in the case of a former school administrator who filed an unlawful discrimination complaint against one of the Toledo area’s top performing high schools.
The commission in mid-November found it probable that TSA leaders did in fact engage in unlawful discriminatory practices against then-Dean of Students India Springs, and found it probable that they retaliated against Ms. Springs after she filed a complaint with the state agency in January, 2018.
In the months after that complaint was filed, commission investigators collected testimony from ex-staff members that described growing dysfunction among the school’s administrative core. Some witnesses told the commission’s representatives that they believed school Director Doug Mead targeted Ms. Springs, and ultimately changed her job description to push her out of her post.
Several top administrators departed after Ms. Springs was removed, and a former human resources director claimed her affidavit submitted to the civil rights commission by TSA was actually written by lawyers and was full of “misleading statements.”
Mr. Mead told The Blade Wednesday that TSA remains committed to supporting a diverse and inclusive environment for students and staff.
“At this time, Toledo School for the Arts is complying with the policies and procedures of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.”
TSA officials have requested a reconsideration hearing following the commission’s findings. The hearing is scheduled to take place Thursday in Columbus.
Matthew Bryant, an attorney for Ms. Springs, said in a statement that the commission’s finding “is well-founded in fact and should not be reversed.”
“We believe that the Probable Cause decision should stand, and that TSA should focus on removing racial barriers within its environment — for students, teachers, and staff alike.”
During Thursday’s reconsideration hearing, TSA will have an opportunity to dissuade the commission from its original probable cause finding.
If the commission upholds the probable cause finding, then it would proceed to an administrative law process, where the commission’s administrative law judge would render a ruling, an Ohio Civil Rights Commission spokesman said. If upheld, the repercussions for TSA could vary, and are determined on a case-by-case basis. Repercussions could include a make-whole remedy.
“For example, if someone has been fired, they could be awarded back pay,” spokesman Mary Turocy said.
Ms. Springs was hired as TSA’s dean of students in July, 2017. In the newly created position, she was responsible for creating a code of conduct and addressing student discipline at the public charter school, located at 333 14th St.
But things didn’t go well, and during the next few months, she lodged several complaints to school administrators about a “hostile” and racially charged work environment, according to civil rights commission records.
“Please understand how much courage it takes for me to bring these concerns to your attention,” Ms. Springs said in an email titled “complaint” to Mr. Mead in December, 2017.
“As one of very few African Americans working at Toledo School for the Arts, it is painful to not only witness discriminatory acts, but to also personally endure them here at our school. As a result of the above, I have cried in my office, your office, in the school bathrooms, and away from the school. This is painful and embarrassing.”
Mr. Mead, in an affidavit dated March 23, said he was unaware of any harassment or discrimination Ms. Springs suffered, and that her accusations largely resulted from her misinterpreting the feedback she received from others.
“I think Ms. Springs views harassment in two parts,” Mr. Mead said in the affidavit.
“First, if there is ever a point where we’re trying to give her support or guidance or we gave her the impression that what she was doing wasn’t 100 percent right, she considered that harassment. Second, when a faculty member questioned her, if we did not put the hammer down on that faculty member, she considered that harassment of not being supported.”
Ms. Springs first complained when several black students expressed concerns after a teacher read the “N”-word aloud multiple times in class. Ms. Springs described the students as angry and offended.
She also expressed concerns about teachers reading the “N”-word to other TSA administrators, and said the students’ concerns regarding the word were overlooked and made into an issue of “censorship, book-banning, and erasing history.”
TSA acknowledged that the incident occurred, but said it was merely an academic and curriculum discussion, and that Ms. Springs “attempted to drag it out and turn it into something more.”
Furthermore, Mr. Mead said in his affidavit, he was unaware of any racial comments made to or about Ms. Springs.
The only racial issue in the school, he said, was how Ms. Springs made faculty members feel for trying to discipline black students.
“She has stifled their desire to report any disciplinary issues because they do not want to be deemed a racist,” Mr. Mead said. “As a result, students who should be receiving discipline are not and that is not good for the social order of the school.”
But Ms. Springs alleged that white teachers provided her a list of black students to “put on her radar,” and that black students were disproportionately disciplined compared to their white counterparts.
Leah Williams, the school’s former human resources director, in an Oct.18 interview with the commission, corroborated Ms. Springs’ characterizations of a workplace toxic for African-American employees. While she didn’t originally see harassment toward Ms. Springs, things changed, as did the treatment toward her, Ms. Williams said.
Internal data showed the school consistently disciplined students of color more harshly than their white peers, but some of the nearly all-white teaching staff bristled at Ms. Springs’ efforts to enforce a new disciplinary policy. Those who opposed her approach went over her head to the principal, Ms. Williams said, according to commission interview notes.
Ms. Williams also said that the TSA-provided affidavit attributed to her and given to the commission was written instead by attorneys.
“My affidavit was full of misleading statements and things I never said,” Ms. Williams told a commission investigator.
At the end of the 2017-2018 school year, administrators changed the dean’s position held by Ms. Springs to an assistant principal position that required teaching experience, something the school knew Ms. Springs did not have.
Those decisions were done with Ms. Williams out of the loop, even though she normally wrote job descriptions.
“I was told the reason I was kept out of decisions to terminate [Ms. Springs] was because we were both black,” she told the interviewer.
Those decisions, Ms. Williams believed, were done because Ms. Springs filed a civil rights commission complaint.
In May, 2018, less than a year after she was hired, TSA fired Ms. Springs.
“[Ms. Springs] was terminated because she filed the complaint, there was no other reason,” Ms. Williams told investigators.
Michelle Hiser, the former school principal, said Mr. Mead changed the qualifications for Ms. Springs’ job title so that she would no longer be qualified.
“This looks like retaliation,” Ms. Hiser said in an interview with the commission. “He created the job description to get rid of [Ms. Springs].”
Ms. Hiser also said an affidavit submitted in the case by TSA officials and attributed to her was misleading.
“The affidavit is not the way I write,” she told a commission investigator. “I was told that if I did not play along, I would be in trouble. I trusted this attorney and signed it and moved on. The way and the tone it was written [in] is embarrassing to me.”
Ms. Williams told the commission she personally experienced staff members making racially insensitive comments. Black employees were once referred to as “spades” by colleagues as a “joke”; she was asked about “the ghetto” at times; and recalled a comment in a meeting that “this isn’t Africa.”
Meanwhile, African-American students were at times called the “N”-word in school, with little repercussions. A white student once went up to a Hispanic one and screamed “build that wall,” but was given only a warning by Mr. Mead, Ms. Williams told investigators.
Ms. Hiser left TSA after the 2017-2018 school year, according to interview notes. Ms. Williams quit in 2018.
“I asked myself how can I be a part of an organization that treats people this poorly,” Ms. Williams said, according to the interview notes. “I could not be a part of it.”
First Published January 10, 2019, 11:15 a.m.
