Former Beaufort Co. schools employee files complaint alleging racism, sexism at work
Months after leaving Beaufort County School District, a former employee has filed a discrimination complaint about the way his medical accommodations for COVID-19 were handled.
In an April complaint to South Carolina’s Human Affairs Commission, former M.C. Riley Elementary School data specialist Qaadir Phillips claims he faced retaliation and discrimination from the district on the basis of his race, age, sex and disability.
Phillips, who has moderately severe asthma and PTSD, was one of 165 district employees who got approval to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic ahead of the 2020-21 school year.
These accommodations were outlined by the March 2020 CARES Act and were granted to 82% of the 201 employees who applied for them, district spokeswoman Candace Bruder previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
But in January, after the CARES Act expired, Phillips’ accommodations weren’t renewed — even though 127 employees were allowed remote work accommodations for the spring semester.
According to his complaint, “the district approved similarly-situated non-disabled younger, white female employees to work remote.”
Bruder previously said the district received 151 applications for spring accommodations and did not track how many were renewals versus new employees. Reached Friday, she declined to comment on pending legal matters and said the district “cannot provide confidential medical information regarding its employees and any medical accommodations they may have.”
Phillips began taking unpaid days under the Family and Medical Leave Act to avoid the building. When they ran out in February, he left the district.
The district claims that Phillips resigned in an Feb. 1 email confirming that he wouldn’t return to work when he ran out of unpaid medical leave.
His lawyer, Elizabeth Bowen, maintains that he was forced to resign due to the “limbo” the district kept him in.
Phillips declined to comment Friday, directing questions to Bowen, who represented former H.E. McCracken Middle School principal Jerry Henderson in a defamation lawsuit against the district that was settled in December.
Bowen said that Phillips has not been able to find work since February, and that he cannot collect unemployment due to the district’s claim that he resigned.
“He has been diligently searching for employment, but has just not been able to find anything,” she said. “This has been a very, very stressful time for him and his family.”
Bowen said that sending a complaint to the S.C. Human Affairs Commission is the first step needed to file a lawsuit against the district for discrimination. The commission has six months to investigate the complaint, including time for the district to respond and for Phillips to offer a rebuttal to that response. After that investigation, the commission issues the right to sue to the complainant, Bowen said.
She’s hoping to obtain a settlement with the district or a favorable jury trial for Phillips.
“At this point he’s not wanting to go back to the district because of the treatment he’s received,” she said. “We really do feel that our client has been wronged by the district, and we’re prepared to move forward fully in this case.”