CCSD ABUSE TOWARD PEOPLE WITH Disabilities under Brenda Larsen Mitchel:
CCSD for those employees who are being targeted for your ADA accommodations or being asked to convert your job to a contractor position. These abuses must be stopped and you deserve better. I understand many of you are not getting the help you need from the Support Staff Association or under the current intermin Superintendent Brenda Larsen Mitchel:
Steps to do:
Gather all the evidence you can that you can. (See below regarding relevant evidence.) Also note any evidence you can get through Public Record request or Discovery as well to stay organized.
Make a timeline of all events. Include Date, Time, Names and titles of those present, purpose of the occasions and a brief sentence or paragraph as to the facts. The timeline of facts should be relevant to proving the claim, leave out hearsay and or conclusions.
Notify your immediate supervisor or higher up the chain to try to resolve the issues. Keep all communication in writing. If they call or there is a conversation not in writing, send contemporaneous email to them with a summary of the details of the conversion to record the facts.
Notify Human Resources departments – Employee Management Relations (EMR) and/or Office of Diversity and Affirmative Action (ODAA).
If those internal avenues fail to administratively get a remedy, next steps is to file a claim with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission (NERC).
File the claim with NERC by going to https://detr.nv.gov/NERC. Watch the How to Videos and read the instructions. Email the NERC people early and often (go to NERCs website to get emails). View the how to videos on the NERC website.
It’s important to follow up with NERC as they are very busy. Eventually, NERC should schedule an interview with you. They want to know facts, - see Relevant Evidence Section below. Do your facts tell a story that makes sense. Example – I participated in a disability discrimination investigation and then after that I was demoted. Retaliation is discrimination and illegal.
After the interview and the person writes up their take on the facts, ask for a Right to Sue letter. With that letter, you have 90 days to file a lawsuit.
Always be professional. Don’t give the employer something to use against you.
You should be consulting with a lawyer, but it's likely without the Right to Sue they are not going to take a lot of swift actions. Keep your lawyer informed of steps you've taken so far.
Relevant Evidence
If a person is being discriminated against or retaliated against, it is often difficult to prove a cause/effect.
Four things have to have taken place:
1. You participated in a protected activity or conduct or are a member of a protected class.
2. The employer knew about, suspected activity or conduct or knew about or it was known that the employee was a member of the protected class (disability, age, race, gender, sexuality for example.)
3. You the employee suffered unfavorable or negative personnel actions.
4. The circumstances are sufficient to infer that the negative personnel actions were taken because of, or “but for” the protected activity / class. In some circuit courts the legal hurdle is just “contributing factor, but in the 9th, it has to the reason for the negative actions taken, not just one of the reasons.
In most cases, it’s the preponderance of evidence, the pattern, that shows the cause. Time proximity, negative reviews or write ups, demotions, transfers, etc are all examples.
If you do not have a lawyer and would like legal assistance, please contact me and I will give you lawyer information for some one to help you. You deserve to work in an abusive free work place, especially in public education!