Judge Considers Former School Custodian Lawsuit

{West Virginia}...Kanawha Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib has been asked to decide a case involving Willis McLemore, a former Capital High School custodian who claims he was racially harassed. McLemore sued the Kanawha County Board of Education, principal Clinton Giles and his supervisor, Frank Thompson, in 2008. McLemore, an African American, contends he was harassed with racial slurs shortly after he was hired in January 2007. Attorney Jan Fox, representing the school board, made a motion for summary judgment, which requests the judge to decide the case based on the facts prior to going to a jury. Fox says McLemore's work was evaluated several times and determined to be poor, and he was warned that if he did not improve his work he would be put on a plan of improvement. but, before that plan was instituted, he resigned. McLemore's attorney, Matthew Criswell, says the performance evaluations were racially motivated and the racial slurs were an attempt to get McLemore to quit. Criswell says McLemore took his complaints to Giles, who is also African American, but nothing changed. McLemore resigned in April 2008 and filed a grievance with the school board shortly afterward. That grievance was denied. McLemore appealed that decision to the West Virginia Supreme Court in 2009, but the court refused to hear the case.