The jury trial of a teacher-coach who claims was denied an athletic director position at Besteiro Middle School because "she didn't know football" by the Brownsville Independent School District and sued the district for gender discrimination is underway in the 197th District Court.
In her lawsuit filed September 28, 2017, Patricia Salgado, a 10-year employee of the district as a teacher and coach, said that despite being recommended by former Besteiro A.D. Albert Alegria and principal Kathleen Jimenez, two male applicants were selected over her.She charged that "at least one of the selections, Mr. Ben Sandoval, did not possess the minimum qualifications. The other male selection changed his mind after being approved and was allowed to be selected to another position of his choosing at Porter High School.
"However, Defendant’s administration believe
that men make better athletic directors because, “they know football”. At least, this is the
opinion of Mr. Julio Martinez, A.P. and possibly others such as Jason Starkey and Tom Chavez
who were on the interviewing committee. They voted to award the position to the male applicant she says was less qualified.Salgado further charged that she has been discriminated based upon her gender and a male dominated mentality that she must know football, that assumes that a woman is not capable of being an AD because of the sexist attitude that she does not understand nor has the ability to coach a sport because of her sex.
Further, she says that on or about August 26, 2016, she submitted under a complaint of discrimination that is required to be investigated by the BISD HR Department. It took nearly eight (8) months for an investigation to be conducted and an additional two (2) months to receive a report, she states.
She further claims that she was further retaliated against by the district by refusing to hire her as the Athletic Director and its refusal to investigate her complaint for opposing workplace discrimination. Currently, there is not one female Athletic Director serving in that capacity in the BISD.
In her lawsuit, Salgado says she seeks monetary relief over $200,000.00 but not more than $1,000,000 plus attorneys fees. She asked for a jury trial.
In its response, the BISD denied all the allegations and said that her non-selection was based on legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons unrelated to her gender and says the lawsuit is "frivolous, unreasonable, and without foundation."
Court watchers would say that the above is par for the course in one of these lawsuits, but there have been some unexpected turns of events.
For example, after Ass. District Judge Louis Sorola denied the district's motion for summary judgment on June 1 and ruled that the trial could proceed, the BISD attorneys June 7 moved to have him recused from the case because he had been listed as a legal representative for fellow district judge Elia Cornejo in a grievance against the BISD.
Sorola was listed as Cornejo-Lopez representative but never performed any work for her on the complaint. However, he agreed to recuse himself and the case is being heard by Judge Migdalia Lopez.
Salgado's witness list includes 12 BISD administrators including Chavez, Jimenez, and Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas. Zendejas' role in the matter is of some interest because there are allegations that she placed a personal call to the school's administration and allegedly influenced the final selection of the Besteiro A.D.
There is another off quirk to this case which does not bode well for the BISD. The court heard an argument outside the presence of the jury on a spoilation issue because the interview files of the applicants for the Besteiro A.D position had gone missing.
The court then issued an order June 11 that the jury be instructed on the fact that the district could not produce the interview files because they were missing.
23 comments:
A simple written test like we used to take back when we applied for any position in BISD, would solve the problem. The resume, the interview, and the results of a written and oral test should be used to determine the best candidate. The SBDM committee makes a recommendation after a process of the above, buy in many cases, those on the SBDM committee are not fully aware of all the ins and outs of the position and will turn to selecting someone they know or have heard about. Then, the SBDM committee makes a recommendation to the superintendent and the board refuses to accept that recommendation. Someone has already emailed them and were able to have them swing their votes the way they want it. For one mistake, many pay the consequences, and it is not fair to those who lose out wrongfully. The HR department should sit down and really consider restructuring the process by which any job applicant is interviewed. This business about not voting for the recommendation because a close friend of the cousin of the grandmother of the sister has called you for help is not klosher! Get your act together or BISD is going to go broke with so many grievances being filed by those educators who are dedicated to educating the children??? Ha! Lining their pockets for a smooth ride is more like it and also imagine how much the lawyer gets.
And the story goes on with so many stories related to the reasons why Juan Nepomuceno Cortina fought for the Mexicans being oppressed by the Yankess who were down here claiming land left and right and treating the rightful owners as "less than human" as even the Rev. Hiram Chamberlain used to call them. And that was the clergy! Read the stories! Some are amusing and some of disgraceful, some are true and some are false, but nobody cared. Thanks for a piece of interesting reading for leisure, Juan. Read the papers that Judge J. T. Canales was able to get from the records that had been stolen by Francisco Yturria, KIng and Kenedy. One copy was saved by a newspaper reported and made a copy for Judge Canales. So much to read on this subject.
You need to check the order. I have note. But in spoliation cases the order to the jury will include the jury is to presume the destroyed evidence is to be presumed against BISD's interests. Google the order in the Mary Tipton case. This is exactly how the women got off because of the instruction on the missing video.
Bobby WC
Football! BISD has never had a football winning season in decades. Wouldn't that in it self tell these idiots something?
may as well get a woman coach for these BISD gridiron pansies. They can't beat teams from upstate!
Zendejas is such a corrupt individual and she bows down to Joe’s every request, when it comes to athletics decisions. Come on people, you know Joe is still the Athletic Director for BISD. Joe calls all the shots for athletics, and no one can do anything about it?
Quiere feria $$$$$
There is only one athletic director working out of Sams Stadiums. At the high schools and junior highs the position is designated athletic coordinator. In essence, they are athletic directors on their campuses. The vast majority are head football coaches. It is a perk because football is still king in Texas, but there is no reason a coach from another sport couldn't handle the job. It is basically oversight and paper work. I do not know if there is a stipend for being an AC, but I have often thought that at the high schools the AC position is exploited to award the head football coaches for receiving higher salaries even though they do little more than coach football and generally delegate responsibilities to ten underlings. Head football coaches teach no classes, yet their salaries are between $80,000 and $100,000 depending on the size of their bellies.
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HIRE FEMALES IN *MALE DOMINANT* JOBS. EXAMPLE: FEMALES IN POLICE & FIRE DEPARTMENTS.
WHEN YOU HIRE FEMALES IN MALE DOMINANT JOBS TWO THINGS WILL HAPPEN....
#1: SOONER OR LATER THE FEMALE WILL SPREAD HER LEGS & GET F*KD BY A MALE COWORKER.
#2: IF NOTHING GOES HER WAY SHE WILL *TRY* TO PULL THE "GIRL-CARD" BUT WILL LOOSE, WHY? BECAUSE SHE WILLINGLY APPLIED FOR THE MALE DOMINANT JOB.
Lemme see. Apply for a position which I am not qualified then throw out the gender card. Wow! Easy way to make money!
Yes, vote him out of office and bring in someone who is worse than he may be.
Let the teachers run the district? How can a file be lost? something is wrong here and that person should be held accountable and have them pay the 1 million dollars the coach wants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heEZhkyavEA
My flag football girls teams in my PE classes could beat any of the football teams in Brownsville. Look at Chavez who has started to loose his shine as a winner, but he still remains in the position. I can not remember a coach being fired from BISD except when I was a BHS and Coach Joe was fired. Who else has been fired? How far has a football team from Brownsville elevated at the state level if not for only the 62-63 Golden Eagles who went to the Quarterfinals. I can remember that season many moons ago.
looks like she just hit the lottery-big payout. thank you bisd taxpayers
Glorifying the past does nothing for the student athletes of today. You must be a legend in your own mind. When you were in school did you ever learn the difference between lose and loose?
A big court case If there is discrimination
I beg your pardon! Thanks for the correction of the homophones! You must have been a straight A student and valedictorian of your class. Congratulations!
If Albert recommended her, it was only because she is member of HIS union. Her dues are truly appreciated "con Alegria." He certainly does defend those that are his union members. If Albert would spend more time preparing for the classroom, maybe he wouldn't have so much time on his hands. As far as he is concerned, he is the only one who knows everything and is always right.
As for the principal, what would she know about coaching or not coaching football. How many times has she been moved and for why? But, somehow, someone made a comment that was attributed to "discrimination" and someone had the "ambulance chaser" to put her on the right track. I can remember some time back when Bob Martin was principal at Ebony Heights Elem, he hired Adan Salinas as his assistant principal and stupidly commented in the paper that he had hired him over the woman applicant, DAG, because Adam could pick up heavy boxes and the lady couldn't. Guess what, the lady sue the hell out of BISD and build a huge home in Rancho Viego with the funds.
Who is to blame for all these grievances and suits? Or, is it the lawyers looking for a nickel or a dime?
I worked with Coach Salgado and she was practically running the athletics program at Besteiro ten years ago as a new teacher. Coach Alegria and Ms. Jimenez recommended her because she’s an excellent employee, she has several years of experience, and she would perform well as AC. It’s 2018. BISD athletics needs to get with the program and hire qualified women to head coaching and administrative positions. My high school’s AC in the early 90s was a woman, the head girls basketball coach. McAllen’s AD is a woman (a pretty awesome one) and I heard BISD once denied her the AD position. Since when does being a woman disqualify one from having football knowledge? And why is football the only sport qualifying one for the paper pushing AC and AD positions anyway? I coached a long time and it became tiresome constantly working under incompetent men who were handed their positions by other incompetent men. Even more upsetting are certain female principals and higher ups in BISD who continue to support these men or turn a blind eye when discrimination occurs. Really, ladies? The bro code in BISD athletics needs to go!
Machismo is alive and well in Browntown. At times it raises it's head as discrimination, such as the case at hand.
A word I haven't heard in ages.
Blogger at 10:15 - how beautiful for you to stand up for your colleague. Were you asked to testify at the hearing in court or at any of the grievance sessions? Were you able to give your insight into the situation? Maybe that should be a part of the process when the determination is being made when making recommendations and should be included as back-up in the agenda item under personnel. Maybe that needs to be a part of the protocol? And if any 'powers that be' at BISD is reading this, would you even consider sharing this info to the rest of the HR department? And the school board cabezones!
TO THE BOARD: Give her the job and 5 million dollars. Its not your money anyway..
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