Public Interest Briefs
Public Interest Briefs track CLIPI’s filings, funding, coalition wins, showing how each step drives policy change and nurtures advocates.
Center Settles Sex Discrimination Suit Against Los Angeles Unified School District
Settlement Will Lead to Hiring of Hundreds of Women for School Principal and Other Top Level Administrative Positions
The Center announced in late July the settlement of a class action lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District (Szewiola v. Los Angeles Unified School District) brought on behalf of almost 20,000 female employees of that district. The suit alleged that the school district, the second largest in the nation, had illegally discriminated against women when deciding whom to promote to school principal positions and to other high level administrative jobs. It also charged the School District with using discriminatory recruitment and interview procedures and with applying education and experience requirements in an unequal manner.
The two named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Assistant Principals Irene Szewolia and Patricia Joyce, had sought promotion to the position of secondary principal for the past several years. The Center’s suit alleged that Ms. Szewiola was denied the opportunity because of the discriminatory recommendation practices and that Ms. Joyce had been passed over twice in the last eight years for no justifiable reason in favor of men below her on the eligibility list.
According to Center attorneys, such discriminatory practices have resulted in a Los Angeles School District workforce in which women are concentrated in the lower paying jobs and virtually excluded from the higher level administrative jobs. For example, as of January 1980, although women filled 72% of the regular elementary teaching positions, only 35% of the elementary principals were women. Although 50% of the secondary school teachers were women, only 8% of the senior high principals, 16% of the junior high principals, and 15% of the high level administrative positions above principal were filled by women. Overall, women held 69% of the District’s teaching assignments, but only 25% of the principal positions, and only 10% of management positions.
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Autumn ’80 finds CLIPI smashing sex bias in schools and TV, forcing LAPD to lower height rules, battling TB jailings, suing for wrongful arrests, auditing Diablo’s quake risks, and blocking sprawl in the Santa Monicas.
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