The former human resources director of the Adams County School District No. 14 has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the district of racial discrimination and claiming she was punished for exercising her freedom of speech.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Denver U.S. District Court on behalf of Marisol Enriquez identifies Superintendent Patrick Sanchez, Chief Human Resources Officer Jack Kronser and the district’s board of education as defendants.
Enriquez seeks compensatory and punitive damages and attorney’s fees. The lawsuit was filed by Westminster attorney Joseph Salazar.
District officials did not have an immediate response to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says the district retaliated against her because of her opposition to discriminatory and retaliatory practices and terminated her employment by refusing to renew her contract.
The lawsuit cites a 2014 report by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that the district used discriminatory education and employment practices, including creating a hostile work environment and engaging in retaliatory behavior against Latino parents, students and staff. A total of 83 percent of the student population is Hispanic.
Enriquez was recruited away from her position as Pathways Director for the Aurora Public Schools District partly to comply with mandated changes in an agreement between the federal education office and the district. Her duties included investigating discrimination and retaliation, the lawsuit says.
Enriquez was “harassed” about travel expenses linked to her efforts to recruit teachers to the district. Enriquez filed a discrimination complaint claiming she was harassed about the expenses because she is Hispanic. The lawsuit says her allegations were never investigated.
She wrote an e-mail to Kronser in May alerting him that the district was not in compliance with the agreement with the federal education department. The next month Kronser met with Enriquez and advised her to quit “sooner rather than later.”
The district did not renew Enriquez’s contract in June of 2015. Subsequently, Denver hired Enriquez as a principal and Sanchez contacted Denver Public Schools officials saying that he was going to have her principal’s license revoked, the lawsuit says. That action was retaliation, the lawsuit says.
